


Hana 'a'a Makehewa

by cazmalfoy



Series: Assassin Ianto [9]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010), Torchwood
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-16
Updated: 2013-12-16
Packaged: 2018-01-04 21:27:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 26,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1085876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cazmalfoy/pseuds/cazmalfoy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Five-0 find themselves investigating a case with links to Torchwood, they realise the case has less to do with the present and more to do with Jack and Ianto's pasts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hana 'a'a Makehewa

**Author's Note:**

> This is part of my Assassin Ianto series and what comes from watching Hawaii Five-0 when AI decides to wake up.
> 
> I've tried to make sure it can be read without needing to know anything about H50, so hopefully even people who haven't seen the show should be able to follow this.
> 
> In the AI 'verse this story is set during the twenty-fourth century, and this is based heavily on the plot for the H50 episode of the same name (1x12). 
> 
> Since Torchwood is the original fandom, I have decided to work with British spelling and grammar. For obvious reasons I have changed why Steve returned to Hawaii in the first place and why the Five-0 task force was set up.
> 
> The title is Hawaiian for 'Desperate Measures'.

It was almost nine when Steve McGarrett stumbled through his front door. The sky outside was dark, and it wouldn’t surprise him if they had a downpour shortly. He’d never admit it to anyone, but he liked the rain; it reminded him where his family had come from and made him feel a little closer to them even if only for a little while.

His feet ached, and it was with relief he kicked off his boots. The team had spent all day, running around Pearl City looking for a six year old boy who had disappeared from his bed in the middle of the night. By some twist of fate – he didn’t like to use the world miracle – they had found the boy a little over two hours ago. Apparently he’d been unable to sleep and snuck out through his bedroom window.

Danny’s nerves had been on edge all day and when they’d found the boy, he’d wanted nothing more than to see Grace. Steve had volunteered to tie up the rest of the loose ends on the case, while his partner reassured himself that his daughter was okay. Two hours later, he wasn’t quite starting to regret the offer, but he was more than ready to fall onto his couch, watch a movie and pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist for a while.

Entering the kitchen, his eyes fell on the package he’d left on the table. Steve had no idea how the sender had managed it to smuggle the contents past customs, but he didn’t care. The tea that had been sent was amazing and he’d immediately made himself a cup; only to have been forced to rush through it when he had been called into work.

Now, he was determined nothing was going to let anything get in the way of him enjoying his first cup in months. The pipes creaked as he filled the kettle and Steve grinned. He loved living in the house he had grown up in. It may be old and need repairing, but it was his home and he adored it.

Plugging the power cord back in, Steve paused. He could have sworn he had heard a sound beyond the rain starting to beat against the kitchen window. When he didn’t hear anything else, he moved to flick the kettle on. Before he could, he heard the sound again and this time there was no uncertainty. Someone was moving around in his garage, and they weren’t being quiet about it either.

Quickly pulling his gun from where it had still been secured on his belt, Steve padded across the kitchen and leant against the wall beside the door which led to the garage. He couldn’t hear anything, but he knew from experience that the intruder was likely still in the building.

Silently he slid through the open door and crouched down, shielding himself from view with the Marquis he had been trying to restore. Under the carriage, he could see boots moving around. 

Male. Probably about his age. Military; the boots were just like his own.

He moved out from behind the car, levelling the gun on the intruder. He had his back to him, and was busy rummaging around on a work bench. “Stop,” he ordered, moving around the currently unusable vehicle. “Hands in the air, and turn around slowly.”

The intruder paused in his rummaging, and held his hands up at the side of his head. Steve watched as he turned and immediately knew his surprise was written all over his face when the other man grinned.

He paused, gun wavering in his hand, before blurting out, “Dad?”

~

Steve stalked into the kitchen and flicked on the light, illuminating the room he had left dark when arriving home. “I don’t know why you couldn’t have just called,” he snapped in Jack’s native tongue as he headed over to the counter and wrenching a cupboard open.

Behind him, he heard his father move across the room and saw him leaning against the counter out of the corner of his eye. “I wanted to surprise you,” the other man muttered petulantly.

“Well, congratulations,” Steve retorted. “By breaking into my garage during a storm, you succeeded.”

A hand landed on his shoulder and he turned to face his father; the man he hadn’t seen in person for almost five years. “You look good, kid,” the older man whispered, meeting Steve’s hazel eyes with his own bright blues.

Despite his previous irritation at being snuck on, Steve could feel himself smiling back at the unspoken admission of how much he had been missed. “Missed you too, dad.”

They didn’t embrace. It wasn’t that they weren’t an affectionate family; Steve just wasn’t the hugging type. He never had been.

Without asking if the drink was wanted, Steve filled the two cups now sitting on the counter. As the tea steeped, he glanced at his father, trying to see if there was anything different.

He didn’t look any different. Not that Steve had expected him to. Jack Harkness had looked like he was in his thirties for centuries. When he had been a kid, Steve had never really thought it was odd, but as he got older and Jack remained the same, questions had started filling his mind.

At eight, Steve had never thought the answers to his questions would literally open his mind up to a whole world of possibilities, where immortals and time-travel existed. 

It was only when Jack took the cup from him that Steve realised he had been wrong. There was one thing different about his father.

“What did you do now?” he asked wearily, picking up his own cup and heading into the living room. Instinctively he knew Jack was following; even if he hadn’t been able to hear the boots behind him. The older man really did struggle with stealth.

After placing the cup on the table, he threw himself down on the couch. He stuck his arm behind his head, propping it up as he watched Jack slid into one of the armchairs. “Why does everyone assume I’ve done something?” Jack muttered, taking another drink.

Steve rolled his eyes. “You’re not wearing your wedding ring, Dad,” he pointing out, unhooking his gun from his belt and dropping it onto the table in the centre of the room. 

Jack scowled. “You’re far too observant for your own good.” They were silent for a beat before he added, “We’re taking a break, that’s all.” Steve raised an eyebrow, but Jack shook his head. “I mean it! For once we’re not actually annoyed with each other; well, any more than normal at least. I haven’t been shot for almost six months.” 

There was a pride in his voice that made Steve laugh. “Well, as long as you haven’t messed up too much,” he murmured, reaching for the remote. “Does Tad know where you are?” He jabbed his thumb against the power button and the television sprang to life.

“No,” Jack answered, placing his drink to the side and kicking off his boots. “He would have probably overloaded me with more tea for you if he did.” He pulled a face and glared at the drink Steve had made him. “You know, if it wasn’t for the fact that I carried you for almost nine months, I would seriously doubt you were mine.”

Steve laughed and rolled his eyes. “Not liking coffee isn’t a crime, dad,” he retorted. The familiar argument was familiar and comforting. They had always bickered about how Jack was certain Steve was adopted; there was no way any son of his couldn’t like coffee. 

Jack snorted. “Yes it is. I get not liking instant, but not even liking Ianto’s?” He shook his head. “You’re odd. That’s the long and short of it.”

“Thanks,” Steve muttered dryly, taking a sip of his tea with exaggerated movements. He wasn’t making fun of Jack; honest. They were silent, before he casually noted, “I take it you’re not staying in a hotel.” 

His dad may have been living for hundreds of years, but planning ahead had never been his strong suit. Jack hadn’t even arrived with anything other than the clothes on his back; pre-booking a hotel on the island wouldn’t even have entered his mind.

“Last I checked this house had three perfectly functioning bedrooms,” Jack replied, a grin spreading across his face when Steve glared at him. It wasn’t a vicious glare; he didn’t even mean it. He would never dream of letting family stay in a hotel. Clearly his father had been willing to use that hospitality to his benefit.

Faking a sigh, Steve wiggled on the couch, arranging the cushions more comfortably behind his head. “You can stay,” he agreed, trying to let as much reluctance as he could show in his voice. “But you’re not having the master bedroom. This isn’t your house anymore, Dad; it’s mine.”

Jack pouted, but before he could argue Steve added, “It’s either my old room, or Mary’s. I haven’t had chance to redecorate yet, so it’s still pink. It’s up to you.”

~

Steve had no idea how, but somehow he was lying on his old bed staring up at a poster of Romona Fili. He remembered putting the poster up during his teenage years and, like any warm blooded human male, had spent many hours fantasising while looking up at the image of the busty blond star of the teenage show, Secret Lives. The show had been crap, but Steve had never met anyone who had watched it for the plot.

He would never had dreamed he would be lying in the same bed, in his thirties, while his father slept across the hall in the master bedroom. He couldn’t even remember losing the fight over who slept where, but here he was, trying to fit his six foot plus frame onto the twin bed.

When his cell rang at four, he was still wide awake, having long since given up the idea of sleeping and resigning himself to reading a magazine he’d found. When he’d been fourteen, the contents had been x-rated; looking at it as an adult, it wasn’t as graphic as he remembered it being.

After getting the address of the crime scene, Steve climbed out of bed and stretched his muscles gratefully. He considered barging into HIS bedroom to get some fresh clothes, not caring about waking Jack up, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. With Jack around again, he felt like a teenager; entering the master bedroom uninvited would just be weird.

Instead, he chose to take a quick shower and pull on the clothes he had changed into after arriving home the night before. Halfway out of the house, with his keys and cell in hand, he paused. Jack would wake soon and want to know where he was; best to leave a note, rather than get hell from his father.

“You look like crap, Babe,” Danny greeted, leaning against the door of Steve’s truck as he arrived at their crime scene. 

Steve glared half-heartedly at him, and pushed the Jersey man back a step so he could get out of the car. “Yeah, well I’ve been squashed into my old bed all night, and had no sleep. You’d look like crap as well,” he muttered, falling into step with Danny as his partner led him up to the house.

Danny paused halfway up the path and looked at him in confusion. “Why on earth would you be sleeping in your old bed?”

For a moment Steve considered explaining Jack’s arrival, but he dismissed the idea pretty quickly. His father’s presence in his life always resulted in more questions than Steve cared to answer; especially when he was running on adrenaline and air alone. “It’s a long story.” He pulled a pair of latex gloves from his pocket. “What have we got?”

“Home invasion,” Danny answered. “Kid got a little more than he bargained for when he found a dead guy in the bathtub.”

On the steps Steve paused. “B&E, and the guy stops to take a leak?” He shook his head. “Professional.”

Danny laughed and shook his head. “Apparently he was looking to see if they had a TV in the bathroom. Are you really not going to tell me?” he questioned, barely pausing to take a breath in between words.

Steve laughed, but didn’t answer as he slipped past the crime scene tape into the building. “Where’s the kid who found the body?” he asked, knowing instinctively that Danny was behind him. He glanced around, giving the room a cursory glance. He would closely at anything that caught his attention later.

“HPD bundled him into the back of a car after he emptied his stomach in a flower bed.” Danny stepped around Steve and led him down the corridor, stopping when a door opened and Kono appeared.

She smiled. “Hey, boss. We’ve got signs of forced entry, but with the B&E it’s going to be hard to tell which were from our robber, and which were our killer.”

“Do we know who the victim is?” Steve asked.

Kono shook her head. “The house is privately rented. I’m trying to track down the owner, but it’s slow going. He did have this on him, though,” she added, holding up a black leather wallet.

Steve took it from her and began rifling through it. There wasn’t anything of importance; no cards, or licence. Just a few ten dollar bills and a folded piece of paper. With a frown, he pulled the paper out, carefully unfolding it so he didn’t tear it.

To his credit, Danny lasted a full thirty seconds before asking, “What’s it say, Babe? Come on, the suspense is killing me here.”

Silently Steve handed the note to his partner. “Shelburne,” Danny read, shrugging his shoulders. “What the hell does that mean?”

Steve’s cell ringing made them all jump and he quickly reached into his pocket for the device. “I have no idea.” Without looking at the screen, he jabbed the answer button. “McGarrett.”

The moment he heard Jack’s voice, Steve knew he shouldn’t have answered. “Ste, if you were a fire extinguisher, where would you be?”

~

Chin looked up when the door opened. “Hey, I pulled the driver’s licence of the guy who owns our crime scene,” he greeted. 

Danny, Steve and Kono gathered around the table as he pressed a series of keys. The screens, which had previously been blue, sprang to life. “Meet Luther Mangallanes.” An image appeared on the screen.

Kono sighed. “Well, we were right about our dead guy not being the owner,” she murmured.

Chin nodded in agreement and pressed a couple of keys, bringing up a picture of their victim. A white male in his mid-twenties, who carried the word ‘Shelburne’ in his wallet.

They were silent. Each of them staring at the screen as they compared the two pictures, before Danny groaned. “We need to find out if the B&E kid saw anything unusual. Chances are he was casing the joint, so he might have seen something.” He clapped his hands. “Let’s go see if our crook’s recovered enough to talk.”

He moved around the table and looked over at Steve. “You got the keys, babe?” He shook his head. “What am I talking about, you’ve always got the keys to my car.”

Steve rolled his eyes and shared amused looks with Chin and Kono before following Danny. “Where exactly are we going?” he asked, jogging a little to keep up with Danny, who’s head start meant he was walking a fair way ahead of the Commander.

At the elevator, Danny paused and jabbed his finger against the down button. “HPD took the kid to their interrogation room. Which is what I was trying to tell you this morning, you know, right before you disappeared.”

“Ah,” Steve murmured, stepping inside the elevator.

Danny scowled and followed him. “You’re still not going to tell me where you went?” Steve shook his head, his lips pressed tightly together, and Danny sighed. “Fine, Army Boy, but I will get it out of you soon.”

“Navy, Danny. I was in the Navy. And I was trained to withstand torture, what do you have that they don’t?”

The shorter man chuckled, a maniacal sound Steve really didn’t like. “You, my friend, are just going to have to wait and see.”

~

“How many times do I have to tell you?” Danny snapped, pushing the door to Five-0 open and stalking through. “Suspects cannot talk if you kill them!”

Steve, having almost gotten a face-to-face meeting with the glass door, followed him with a frown on his face. “I didn’t kill him!” he swore.

Danny groaned and ran a hand through his hair. “You waved a grenade in front of his face, Steven. A grenade which you pulled from your pocket, I’d like to add.”

A blush crept up Steve’s neck, but he ignored it. “I wasn’t going to detonate it. I was just trying to scare him into submission.” He looked towards Kono and Chin, silently asking for their back-up, but they wisely kept their mouths shut. Obviously it was only Steve who hadn’t learnt it was best to not cross Daniel Williams when he was having a rant.

“Scare him into submission? Seriously?” He folded his arms across his chest and leant against the computer table. “Empty your pockets.”

Steve opened his mouth to argue, but paused abruptly when he realised what Danny had said. “What?”

“You heard me. Empty your pockets.” When his partner didn’t make a move to comply, Danny added, “I want to see what else you have in there that could potentially get us all killed. Just so I know how much I should increase my life insurance by.”

Steve raised an eyebrow. “I’m not going to empty my pockets, Danno.”

“What are you, a little girl? Just empty them,” Danny insisted.

“No. I-,”

“Guys,” Chin’s voice interrupted whatever argument Steve had been able to come up with. “Max has sent over his autopsy report.”

Momentarily ignoring their argument – because Steve knew Danny never really forgot and would likely bring it back up again – both men turned away from each other to look at the screen where the coroner’s report was displayed.

“We were right at the scene,” Kono said, reading from the report already. “COD was a single gunshot wound to the chest.”

Chin nodded his head. “Max tried to run dentals and DNA, but nothing showed in any database.”

Danny sighed and ran a hand over his mouth in a mannerism Steve knew was his ‘I’m sick of this BS’ expression. “So you’re trying to tell me that this guy might as well not exist?” The rest of the team looked at him with equally hopeless expressions on their faces. “There’s gotta be some way to track down who he is!” he insisted.

Kono bit her lip in thought, before pulling up an image of a tattoo. “There might be. This is the only identifiable mark Max was able to find. It looks unique. If it was done on the island, maybe we can find whoever did it,” she suggested with a hopeful look.

Steve shook his head. “I wouldn’t count on it. There’s hundreds of places people can get tattooed in the state, trust me. And those are just the legit ones.” He ignored Danny’s snort and moved closer to the screen. 

The tattoo was the letter T, and looked to be comprised of honeycombs. “I’ve seen this before,” he muttered.

Danny heard him and stepped closer. “You recognise that?” He pointed at the screen incredulously.

“I think,” Steve confessed, looking over Danny’s shoulder at Kono. “Can you send me this picture?” he asked. Less than sixty seconds later, the image appeared on his phone and he nodded his thanks to the young woman. “I won’t be long.”

He was out of the door before any of them could react.

~

The truck had barely come to a stop in the driveway when Steve jumped out, leaving his keys in the ignition and not caring. He needed confirmation that he was right about the tattoo, and he needed it sooner rather than later.

“Dad?” he shouted as soon as he’d stepped through the door. “Dad, where are you?” he demanded when he didn’t immediately receive a response.

“Out here,” Jack replied, his voice sounding distant as it floated through the open door. 

Steve stepped out onto the back patio and scowled when he saw Jack wearing his favourite board shorts, his best sunglasses and no shirt. “You’re taking advantage of this whole vacation thing, I see,” he commented, reaching into his pocket.

“Well, I was,” Jack corrected. “Until you came barging through the door. You sounded like you’d fallen off your bike, and needed me to kiss your boo-boos.” He chuckled and leant his head back.

The younger man didn’t answer, his attention focused on pulling his cell from his pocket. “Recognise this?” he asked, flicking to the picture and showing Jack.

Slowly, Jack straightened in his chair and pushed the sunglasses up. “Where did you find that?” he asked suspiciously, looking from the phone to Steve.

Steve glared and set the phone down on the old metal table next to Jack. “Answer the question, Dad.”

Blue eyes looked up at him, and Steve mentally prepared himself for whatever argument Jack was about to give him. When nothing came, he sighed and sat down heavily on the second chair. 

“It was tattooed on a dead body that was found at the crime scene I was called out to this morning,” Steve admitted. His father remained silent and Steve sighed. “I know you know what it means.” He nodded to the phone which was still displaying the picture. “I think I do as well. But I need you to tell me if I’m imaging it.”

Jack studied the picture again, before whispering, “You’re not. You need to call Ianto; this is one of his guys. He’s Torchwood.”

~

Steve chewed on his thumb nail as he thought. It was a bad habit, he knew, and he’d tried to stop, but every time he faced a confusing problem, he found himself falling back into old habits.

His laptop sat open on the coffee table, and he had been staring at the details of the case for the past three hours. Nothing they had was of any use. They couldn’t find anything that linked Luther Mangallanes to their victim; he hadn’t even been on the island for six months. Not to mention, the name the house had been rented in had turned out to be fake. 

He had been trying to work out the connection between their victim and Torchwood ever since, with no luck. 

When they had moved to Hawaii five months before Steve had been born, Jack and Ianto had made the decision to leave Torchwood in the capable hands of their extended family. They wanted the chance to raise their children away from aliens and danger for a change. 

When Steve had joined the Navy, he had heard about Torchwood and gone digging. A lot of things had been highly classified and Gwyn had refused to break protocol for him back then, but he had learnt enough to know that Jack and Ianto were in charge of everything. Armed with more questions than answered, he had cornered his parents during his next shore leave and had been given a crash course in the history of the Torchwood Institute. 

But, even armed with what he knew about the business, Steve still couldn’t figure out what an operative was doing on the island of Oahu when Hawaii was the one place Ianto had refused to set up an office. 

The sooner the other man got there, the better as far as Steve was concerned. 

Steve glanced down at his cell where it was sitting beside the computer. It was the seventh time Danny had called him; and he had sent the first six through to voice mail. There was no way his partner was going to give up, unless he answered the call.

“Danno,” he greeted, pinching the bridge of his nose and squeezing his eyes closed. He was starting to get a migraine, but the medicine cabinet was too far away and Jack was sitting on the beach, ignoring him when he tried to get his father’s attention.

“Well, at least I know you’re alive,” Danny’s voice came through the phone line.

Steve laughed, the sound of Danny’s voice brightening his mood just like it always did. “Of course I’m alive; don’t be such a drama queen. I’m working. That’s why I didn’t answer your first million calls.”

“You’re exaggerating, Babe,” Danny corrected. “It was only 900,000.” He was silent for a beat before adding, “Get me a beer.”

A frown creased Steve’s forehead. “I never said I was at home.”

Not waiting for him to answer, the door opened and Danny stepped through, cancelling the call as he went. “You know, I might actually believe that if your car wasn’t parked in the driveway.”

Steve sighed and put his phone down on the table. “If you knew I was at home all along, why bother calling me? And don’t you ever knock?” he added as Danny closed the door behind him.

Danny raised an eyebrow. “You have known me for, how long now?” 

“Too long.”

“When have I ever knocked?” he continued, ignoring Steve’s comment.

Steve shrugged his shoulders, conceding that Danny had a point, but not willing to say it out loud. That would give him far too much leverage as far as Steve was concerned. “Did you actually have something to tell me, or were you really so concerned about my health you had to swing by?”

“Cute, babe. Chin managed to get in touch with the security company. The house had an alarm system that had been deactivated.” Steve opened his mouth, but Danny continued before he could speak, “But the CCTV cameras surrounding the place hadn’t. They were running on a separate circuit.”

“That’s good,” Steve mused. “If we can pull the footage, it’ll give us… What?” he demanded when he saw Danny was looking at him with a smirk on his face.

Danny didn’t answer for a second, clearly taking the chance to bask in the knowledge that he knew something Steve didn’t. “Kono’s already on it. She’s going to email you the file when she’s done.”

Steve watched Danny head into the kitchen, and heard him open the fridge. Clearly helping himself to a Longboard without invitation. “And you couldn’t have told me all that over the phone?” he called through.

He got up from the couch and followed the shorter man. He paused in the doorway when he saw that he was right; Danny was leaning against the counter with a bottle in one hand and loosening his tie with the other. “What, and deprive you of my charming presence? I don’t think so, Babe.”

Steve laughed and grabbed himself a bottle of water. He was about to say something when he heard the lanai door open; he had completely forgotten about Jack, as well as Ianto’s impending arrival.

“Ste, what are we-,” Jack trailed off when he saw Danny standing in the kitchen with his son. “Oh, I didn’t realise we had a visitor,” he murmured, looking down at himself and frowning at the board shorts he was still wearing. “I would have dressed up.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Jack, this is my partner, Danny Williams. Danno, meet Jack Harkness; former RAF pilot and all around pain in the ass.”

One look from Jack told him he was going to pay for the comment later, but Steve didn’t care right then. All he was bothered about was hiding the fact that Jack was actually his father. That was… he couldn’t even think about having to explain that to Danny.

“Nice to meet you,” Danny greeted, shaking Jack’s hand. There was something about his voice that made Steve worry he didn’t buy the excuse for a moment. “You didn’t say you had someone staying with you,” the detective said, turning to look at Steve with a look that could only be described as accusatory. 

Saving Steve from having to make something up, Jack jumped in, “It was all very last minute. I arrived on the island late last night, and arrived on Steve’s doorstep not much later.”

Thankfully Danny was prevented from answering when his cell phone rang. “Excuse me,” he said, fishing the phone from his pocket, slipping from the room.

As soon as he disappeared, Steve turned to Jack. “Are you trying to give away who you really are?” he hissed, eyes narrowing in a glare.

Jack’s mouth fell open. “What did I do?” he spluttered.

Steve was about to answer when Danny stuck his head around the door frame. “Steve, I gotta go.”

There was something in his tone telling Steve there was something wrong. “Everything okay?”

Danny sighed and nodded his head, before shaking it. “Grace fell at school and hurt her arm. She’s on her way to the ER now, but Rachel’s out of town, so I’m going to have to go with her.”

Steve felt the bottom drop out of his stomach at his words. Even though it was only a hurt arm, the thought that something could be wrong with his partner’s daughter made it very difficult for him to breathe. “Are you okay driving?” Danny nodded his head and Steve raised an eyebrow. “Seriously, Danno, I’ll drive you if you’re going to crash and die.”

Danny flashed him a thankful smile. “I know, and I appreciate the concern, but I’ll be okay. Let me know if you hear anything from Kono,” he called over his shoulder as he headed for the door.

“Call me the instant you find out what Gracie’s done,” Steve retorted. “And give her a kiss from me.”

“Will do, Babe,” Danny replied with a wave of his hand, before he disappeared from the house.

When the door closed behind him, Steve turned to look at Jack who was looking deep in thought. “I’m sure tad has told you not to think; your brain isn’t used to it.”

Jack didn’t rise to the bait and Steve frowned deeply. They always bantered. “Babe?” the Captain finally asked.

“What?” Steve’s brain caught up with what Jack was talking about. “Oh, that; he says it all the time. You get used to it after a while.”

~

Steve paused, halfway through sending a message to Kono asking for an ETA on the CCTV footage, when he heard the unmistakable sound he always associated with someone teleporting. He couldn’t explain what it was to those who hadn’t heard, but the air always seemed to protest whenever a teleport was activated.

Quickly getting to his feet, he made his way through the house, coming to a stop in the doorway to the dining room. Standing beside the table, holding a manila file and a laptop under one arm, was Ianto Harkness-Jones; looking the same as he had the last time Steve had seen him. Not that he had expected anything different. He was as immortal as Jack; Steve was pretty sure nothing could change his either of his parent’s appearances.

“Tad,” Steve greeted softly. 

Ianto turned around and grinned widely. “Steven.” He set the items he was holding on the table and embraced his son before the younger man realised what had happened. “Did you get the tea?” he asked, speaking in Welsh as he pulled back and looking into Steve’s hazel eyes.

Steve nodded his head. “How did you manage to get it past customs?” he asked, also in Welsh. It was hard to explain why, but when he was around Ianto they always spoke Welsh, just like he and Jack spoke Frezian when they were together. 

A chuckle escaped Ianto and Steve immediately decided he didn’t want to know. It was probably something highly illegal and/or immoral knowing Ianto. “Never mind,” he muttered. “Just keep it coming and I won’t ask any more questions I probably don’t want to know the answer to.”

Ianto laughed and placed a hand on Steve’s shoulder, squeezing affectionately. “Smart man,” he complimented. “Where’s Will?”

Will Kanaris had been Jack’s birth name and Ianto, being the stubborn bastard he would proudly admit to, had been refusing to call him anything but in the centuries that had passed since then. Hearing the name coming from his mouth now wasn’t a shock to Steve; just like it wasn’t a shock to hear his obviously Welsh father using an American accent. 

He remembered asking them why his accent changed, and had been told that Ianto had decided to adopt an American accent when they moved to the States. He had kept the accent to make sure Steve and Mary blended into Hawaiian culture as much as they could.

“Last I checked, he was ‘soaking up the sun’,” Steve answered, nodding to the patio doors.

Ianto rolled his eyes and headed out, with Steve on his heels. “You know you can’t get a tan when the sun’s not out, right?” he questioned, pushing the door open and stepping outside.

As expected, Jack was still sitting in a wicker chair with his feet on the patio table and a book in hand. He paused when he heard the familiar sound of Ianto’s voice and lowered the book. “I thought you weren’t coming until later,” he murmured, putting the book face down on the table so he didn’t lose his page.

“One of the bonuses of having my own Vortex Manipulator,” Ianto replied, moving closer to his partner. “I don’t have to wait for a teleport slot to free-up.”

As he approached, Jack stood up so they were closer to each other’s height; Jack had always been a couple of inches taller. Without saying another word, Ianto leant close enough to press a chaste kiss on Jack’s lips.

Steve rolled his eyes. “I thought you were taking a break from each other,” he reminded Jack over his shoulder as he headed back into the house.

“Doesn’t mean we can’t have friends-with-benefits sex,” Jack called back, making Steve blanch at the thought.

“If you think you’re having sex in my bed, I’ll kill you myself, Dad,” Steve warned. “Tad, what do you want to drink?” he asked, pausing at the fridge.

Ianto appeared in the doorway, Jack at his side. “Water’s fine,” he answered. “Teleporting makes me thirsty,” he explained, accepting a bottle from his son, before turning to his partner. “And why does he think we’re going to have sex in his bed?”

Steve laughed at the sheepish expression on his father’s face; more so when Jack looked at him, silently pleading for his help. The SEAL shook his head. “You’re on your own with this one.”

He headed back into the lounge, where his computer was still open on the table. Behind him, he heard Jack answer, “I’m sleeping in our old room.”

Silence followed and, when it lasted longer than he would have expected, Steve couldn’t help wondering if Ianto had changed his MO and stabbed Jack instead of shooting him. He hadn’t heard a gunshot, and he was pretty sure Ianto didn’t carry a silencer around with him. There wasn’t many other options. 

Sitting down on the couch, he heard footsteps and looked up to see both his parents enter the room; neither of them looking bloody.

“Steven,” Ianto began, sitting down in the chair that had always been ‘his’. “Will has something he’d like to say.”

Jack’s eyes narrowed as he glared at Ianto, but the other man didn’t budge. “Fine,” he muttered under his breath. “Sorry I stole your room.” Steve threw his head back and laughed, but Jack wasn’t finished. “I’ll move my things into your old room tonight.”

When he had finished speaking, he slumped onto the couch and folded his arms across his chest. He looked like Grace after Danny had told her she couldn’t have desert before the main course.

Speaking of Danny… Steve checked his phone and frowned when he didn’t see any messages or missed calls from the detective. Grace must not be out of x-ray yet, he mused to himself.

“Something wrong?” Ianto asked when Steve sighed and leant back against the couch. There was something in his tone that made Steve frown, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.

Steve shook his head. “Danny’s at the hospital with his daughter, waiting to get her arm x-rayed. I’m just worried,” he answered, not quite lying. He really was worried about Grace. He just didn’t admit that he missed Danny, which was weird in itself. “Is that the file?” he asked, not-so-subtly changing the subject.

Ianto raised an eyebrow, but didn’t press him. He leant forward, picking the file up and resting his elbows on his knees as he tried to collect his thoughts. “The man you found,” he began softly, “is Harley Matthews. He was on compassionate leave after losing his wife last year.”

Steve reached out and took the file from him. He flicked it open and let his eyes skim over the text on the page. “He’s from Honolulu,” he noticed. That explained why he’d returned to the state when he worked for the Chicago branch of Torchwood.

Ianto leant back and ran his hand over his face. “He wasn’t going to come home, but I made him,” he whispered. “I thought it would be a good thing for him to be surrounded by familiar things, even though he hadn’t lived here for almost fifteen years.”

“That’s why he was renting,” Steve realised.

Jack, who had been silent, moved and placed his hand on his partner’s arm. “I know what you’re thinking, Ianto, and this isn’t your fault.”

A bitter laugh escaped Ianto’s mouth and he shook his head. “I made him come home, Will. If it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t have been on the island in the first place.” Jack opened his mouth but Ianto shook his head. “You know nothing you say is going to change my mind,” he reminded the older man.

Jack scowled and nodded his head reluctantly. “Don’t remind me,” he muttered darkly.

From the table, Steve’s phone beeped and he glanced down to see that he had a message from Danny. Grace fractured her wrist. Wants Uncle Steve to sign first. Dropping her off with Rachel’s nanny. I’ll be back soon.

He let out a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding as he read the message, before replying and dropping the phone back down on the table. He looked up and saw Ianto looking at him with a raised eyebrow. “Grace has fractured her wrist,” he explained. “He’ll be back in a bit.”

Steve turned his laptop around to face his parents. “This is what we have so far,” he said, grabbing the file Ianto had brought and settling down to read it until Danny arrived.

~

True to his word, Danny returned to the house a short while later. “How’s Grace?” Steve asked as soon the front door opened and Danny entered.

Danny sighed and ran a hand through his hair as he flopped onto the couch next to Steve. “She’s in a bit of pain, but she’ll be okay,” he answered. “What are you looking at?” he asked, leaning so close Steve could smell his cologne.

“It’s the file on our victim,” he answered. “The tattoo Max found is actually the logo for an organisation called Torchwood. He worked for them.”

“Torchwood?” Danny echoed, frowning deeply. “What the hell is a Torchwood employee doing in Hawaii?”

Steve felt a jolt of surprise shoot through him at Danny’s words. He hadn’t expected his partner to know what he was referring to when he said Torchwood. “You’ve… heard of them?” he asked.

Danny scoffed. “I’m from Jersey, Steven,” he pointed out. “I’ve heard stories of cops butting heads with Torchwood for years.”

His words made sense and Steve nodded his head. He had almost forgotten that the first American Torchwood branch had opened up in New York almost a century ago. 

“Where did you get the file?” Danny questioned.

Steve hesitated for a split second, before deciding to stick with his original plan of telling Danny the truth as much as he could; ignoring the part about Jack and Ianto being his parents. “The head of the institute,” he answered slowly. The blond’s eyes widened and Steve could barely keep from laughing to himself. “Ianto?” he shouted through to where his father was in the other room, talking to Jack (he refused to think they were doing anything else).

At the sound of his name, the aforementioned Welshman appeared in the doorway, looking at Steve with a raised eyebrow. The SEAL knew his curiosity was fake; they had discussed that they were going to keep their real identities secret from Danny for as long as possible.

“Danny Williams, meet Ianto Jones, head of the Torchwood Institute,” Steve introduced them. “Ianto,” it felt really strange referring to him by his first name, “this is my partner, Danny.”

Even though he was clearly surprised, for his part Danny was nothing but courteous, getting to his feet and offering Ianto his hand, which the older man shook. “Nice to meet you.” The blond turned back to look at Steve. “I don’t suppose I should bother to ask how the two of you met.”

A smirk tugged at the corner of Steve’s mouth. One of the benefits about there being so much he couldn’t talk about, meant that he could fall back on the excuse now without Danny asking too many questions. Well, no more than normal. “Sorry, Danno. It’s classified,” he grinned when the Jersey-man threw his hands up in the air.

“One of these days, I’m going to find out this ‘classified’ information, and if it’s not as exciting as you make it sound, there’s going to be hell to pay, McGarrett,” Danny warned, slumping down on the couch beside his partner.

Ianto laughed and moved into the room. That was when Steve noticed he was carrying a laptop under his arm. “You had an email,” he said, handing the computer to his son. “It’s encrypted, though, so I couldn’t open it.”

Steve’s eyes narrowed and he barely bit down a comment about Ianto not needing to read his emails anyway. “It’ll be from Kono,” he muttered, opening the laptop and logging on.

Just as he expected, there was a message from Kono along with a video file. The CCTV from the house. 

_Boss, you need to see this. There’s something not right about the file. I’m working on fixing it, but… Well, see for yourself._

Pressing play on the computer, Steve was aware of Jack coming into the room and joining Ianto who moved around to sit on the opposite side to Danny as the video sprang up on the screen.

It wasn’t surprising that the video showed their victim pulling up to the house in a rental car he had hired from the airport. Nor was it surprising that a second car pulled up not long after; they hadn’t thought their killer had walked to the crime scene.

What was surprising was when, just as the second car door was about to open, the screen went dark.

“What the hell?” Danny exclaimed loudly. “I thought the video had been cleaned up!” 

Steve sighed heavily. He knew Kono was working on trying to get more data from the video, but if there was no data there to start with, they wouldn’t be able to get anything. They were going to have to go with plan B. “Kono did say there was something weird,” he murmured, grabbing his phone from the table. “Just give me a sec,” he added, dialling a number. He waited a beat, before greeting whoever answered with a cheeky grin and, “Why can’t I be calling just to say hi?”

He laughed and rolled his eyes. “Well, in that case, why break the habit of a lifetime? If I send you co-ordinates, can you get me the satellite feed for the last twenty-four hours?”

He was silent, before, “Aw, come on, you’ve done worse and not been court martialled yet. Or have you forgotten Tokyo, last spring?” He laughed. “See, now I know you’re lying; that’d incriminate you more than me.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Danny looking pointedly at his watch.

“I’ll buy you a beer next time you’re on shore?” Steve offered. “I mean it this time!” He paused. “Thanks, Gwyn. I owe you. Again.” He cancelled the call and immediately texted the co-ordinates.

“Gwyn?” Ianto asked. “I didn’t know he’d re-enlisted.”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, a guilty look crossed Ianto’s face. It was so quick that it should have been almost impossible to spot, but Steve knew every expression his father had. He hadn’t meant to slip-up; mistakes like that were for amateurs.

Clearly deciding that he might as well finish his sentence (Danny was going to have questions anyway), Ianto added, “Where is he?”

“On a ship in the Pacific,” Danny answered for Steve. “You know his little Navy buddy?” he asked, looking at Steve with a raised eyebrow and the SEAL knew his partner well enough to know that he had spotted something not right. But they didn’t really have time for explanations, Steve decided when a video file from ‘Gwyn Ryman’ popped up on his computer.

“It’s a long story,” Steve said carefully. “And…”

“Classified, yeah I know,” Danny huffed, folding his arms across his chest as he watched Steve cue up the video.

Gwyn really was awesome, Steve decided, watching the video load. He had always known the other man had skills, but really didn’t give him as much credit as he deserved. It would have taken most people days, if not longer, to download and send the file Steve had asked for, but Gwyn knew his way around computer systems better than anyone Steve had ever met.

Hence the reason why it had only taken him minutes to find what they wanted.

 _Hence?_ Steve thought to himself. _God, I’m even starting to think like Danny._

The video was for the twenty-four hours before the murder took place, so it took a lot of skipping for Steve to find the time they were looking for.

“Here we go,” he murmured when they reached the point where Harley returned to the house.

This time the video didn’t go dark and they were clearly able to see the second driver. It was a figure Steve knew he would recognise anywhere. 

Victor Hesse.

To his surprise, Danny wasn’t the only one who reacted to the presence of Hesse at the house. Jack drew in a sharp breath, while Steve was pretty sure Ianto growled.

Pausing the video, he turned to look at his parents who were looking both shocked and murderous at the same time. Quite an impressive feat, really.

“You know him?” he asked, folding his arms and raising an eyebrow as he studied the pair of them.

Jack looked at Ianto and Steve was pretty sure they were talking to each other telepathically or something; when he had been a child, he would have sworn they could read each other’s minds.

Ianto gave a little nod and Jack looked back at Steve. “That’s John Hart,” he answered slowly, his voice betraying how he really felt about the other man.

If the name was supposed to mean something to Steve, he couldn’t place it. “Who?”

The Welshman opened his mouth to answer, before hesitating and looking at Danny. The Detective spotted the look and rolled his eyes. “Don’t start with the classified BS,” he muttered. “I’m part of this investigation, and not going anywhere.”

Ianto grinned and shook his head. “I wasn’t going to say anything about it being classified,” he answered honestly. “I was going to warn you that you might not like – or believe – what I’m going to tell you.”

Danny’s forehead creased as he frowned. “I’m listening,” he said slowly.

Before answering, Ianto lifted his gaze to Steve questioningly. He knew what his father was trying to ask; whatever he was about to say would no doubt raise questions from Danny about what Steve had been keeping from him.

He nodded that it was okay before he had even realised what he was doing. “Danny,” Ianto began, moving from where he was perched on the sofa arm to his favourite chair. “You’re from… New Jersey, right?” Danny nodded his head silently. “And you’ve already heard about Torchwood?” Again Danny inclined his head in agreement. “Have you heard any rumours about what we do?”

“Not really,” Danny answered with a shrug of his shoulders. “There were a few cops who had run ins with you guys, but no-one could ever say for certain what Torchwood actually dealt with.”

Ianto looked down at his hands and if Steve didn’t know any better, he would have said that the immortal was nervous. But Ianto didn’t get nervous; trained assassins were above that.

“We hunt down aliens,” Ianto said bluntly.

Jack threw his head back and laughed loudly at his partner’s words. “And you say I have no finesse,” he muttered under his breath. “Way to be subtle.”

Ianto’s eyes narrowed. “We don’t have time for subtle,” he snapped, looking back at Danny.

Steve followed his gaze and was impressed to see that his partner didn’t even look surprised after Ianto’s admission. 

“That explains a lot,” Danny murmured.

The SEAL chuckled to himself as he realised what Danny was thinking. While Torchwood had never really been the centre of attention, according to his parents they had stopped hiding in the shadows but they had never actually stated to the public what they were in charge of.

For centuries Torchwood had operated out of a base in New York. It made sense that Danny would have heard of them.

“What has that got to do with Victor Hesse?” Danny asked, looking between both Jack and Ianto.

Jack shifted so that he was sitting on the coffee table. “Technically his name is John Hart.”

“Mike, actually,” Ianto corrected, laughing when Jack glared at him. “Whatever you want to call him, it’s the same person. He’s from the future and the last time we,” he waved a hand to indicate himself and Jack, “saw him, it was the twenty-first century.”

That, apparently was a little bit outside Danny’s remit of things that he could accept. His eyes widened so much, Steve was pretty certain they were going to fall out of his head. 

“Excuse me?” the detective croaked, before clearing his throat. “You’re from three hundred years ago.”

Steve sighed and placed a hand on his partner’s arm. “Come on,” he instructed, pulling the other man to his feet. He was going to have to explain everything to Danny for what was going on to make sense, but he wasn’t going to do that with his parents in the room.

Without looking back at his parents, Steve led Danny up the stairs. As they headed up, away from Jack and Ianto’s prying ears, Steve tried to think how he was going to explain his origins to Danny. He had never considered telling any of his friends where he had come from, so hadn’t ever had the conversation which was about to follow. Not even mentally.

“Why do I have a feeling that I’m not going to like whatever you’re going to tell me?” Danny asked once they reached the master bedroom. He pulled his arm from Steve’s grip and sat down on the edge of the bed without waiting for an instruction from the SEAL.

Steve winced a little, but managed to school his features back to neutral before Danny saw him. “It’s not bad,” he tried to assure his partner. He wasn’t entirely certain he believed when he was saying. It was one thing to grow up, knowing that your parents were different, but it was another thing altogether to find out that everything you knew about the world was different.

Knowing that, if he didn’t get through what he needed to say there and then, he would back out and Danny would never know the truth, Steve swallowed and took a deep breath. “Jack and Ianto,” he began, sitting on the bed next to Danny. He would never admit that he left such a big gap between them because he was afraid of how the other man would react to his news. “They’re not friends I know from missions,” he whispered.

Danny raised an eyebrow and turned his face to study Steve’s. “Okay,” he said slowly, dragging the word out considerably more than it should. “Who are they, then?”

Steve looked down at his hands and frowned when he saw they were shaking. That was ironic. He could face war-zones without so much as a blink of an eye, but admitting the truth about himself to his partner was enough to make him nervous. 

“My parents,” he answered softly, not looking up at Danny, even though he needed to see the blond’s face to know how he was taking the new information.

To his surprise, a snort of laughter sounded from Danny and Steve’s head snapped around to stare at him. “I have a feeling there’s more to the story than that, babe,” Danny muttered, rolling his eyes.

Steve drew in another breath. “Yeah. They… Well, originally they’re from the fifty-first century. They belonged to this institution called the Time Agency, and they were given the ability to travel through time and space.”

He fell silent, partly to let the words sink into Danny’s mind, but mostly so he could study his partner for signs that he was about to freak out. To Steve’s mind, he seemed disturbingly calm. A clear sign that things were not all as they seemed.

When Danny tried to speak, his throat caught and he had to cough to clear it. “So, that explains how they could have met Hesse three hundred years ago. It’s probably only been a few years for them.” Steve shook his head slowly and Danny frowned. “What?”

“That’s the other part of the story,” Steve confessed. “Somewhere along the line-,” They really didn’t have time for him to go into specifics there and then. “Something happened to them both and changed their DNA to make them fixed points in time.”

“English, Steven,” Danny snapped.

Unable to stop the chuckle, Steve quickly covered it with a cough to clear his own throat. “Whatever happened to them, made them immortal. They’ve been living on earth for three hundred years, in linear time, and they still look to be in their thirties.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Steve became immensely grateful that his partner was sitting down. Danny swayed in a way that would have been dangerous had he been standing.

“I have no idea who Hesse – Hart – Mike – Whatever his name is – is,” Steve continued, waving a dismissive hand. “But if it’s someone my parents have met before, we’re going to need their help now even more than we did originally.”

Danny didn’t react to his words. He didn’t even blink. In fact, if Steve looked closely, he wasn’t a hundred per cent certain he was still breathing. “Danno?” the taller man asked, getting to his feet and moving so he was standing in front of Danny.

When Danny still didn’t move, Steve leant down and placed a hand under Danny’s chin, tilting his head back. “Are you okay?” he asked, looking into Danny’s blue eyes.

A huff of laughter blew past Danny’s lips and that was when Steve realised how close they were. He didn’t remember moving so their faces were level, but suddenly he was aware of every breath Danny took and every slow blink of those eyes. Not to mention how blue they were; how had he not noticed before.

Steve could feel his lips tingling with each breath, even as he was amazed to find it was a struggle to control his own. His heart was pounding and blood rushed in his ears. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see something moving and he almost started in surprise when he realised it was his fingers. He was caressing the detective’s jaw line, and damn him if he couldn’t help thinking how soft the skin was. 

That was when a thought appeared, completely unsolicited in his mind. It wouldn’t be difficult to move things further along. All he’d have to do would be lean forward and Steve would feel those lips – usually spouting some form of sarcasm, but now disturbingly silent – on his.

“Steven, there’s-,” Ianto’s voice cut through the haze that had landed over Steve and reality came crashing abruptly down. With a jolt, Steve sprang back and away from Danny, acting for all the world like a kid who’d been caught taking his Christmas presents for a test run.

The dresser wobbled dangerously as he crashed into it, and Ianto, who was standing in the doorway raised an eyebrow. “Am I interrupting something?” he asked softly. There was something in his American-accented voice that made Steve wonder what exactly he thought they had been doing, and why he wasn’t surprised to find his son in what most – including Steve - would class as a compromising position with another man. 

Steve shook his head, trying to regulate his heart beat; a side effect of Ianto’s surprise presence, he tried to tell himself. “It’s fine,” he murmured, bringing a hand up to his lips without realising. Even though they hadn’t touched, he could feel a tingling sensation where Danny’s breath had ghosted across his face. “What’s wrong?” Steve asked, trying to shake the feeling away and focus on his father.

Ianto stared at him and Steve could practically hear him say he wasn’t convinced, but didn’t rise to the bait. Until sixty seconds ago, he’d never entertained the idea of being with another man. He couldn’t have that discussion with his father now. He shook his head, not enough for anyone but Ianto to notice. 

“Your lab has sent over a box of evidence,” Ianto said slowly, looking from Steve to Danny who was still sitting on the bed, looking dazed. “Do you want to talk about it?” he asked, switching to Welsh as he looked at his son with more scrutiny than Steve was comfortable with.

“Not really,” Steve replied in English, not looking at either Ianto or Danny as he pushed himself away from the dresser. 

He didn’t quite run from the room, but it was close.

Jack was standing over the coffee table, staring down at an evidence box with a look that was nothing short of suspicious. He looked up when he heard his son fly down the stairs. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he commented dryly.

“How did you convince the delivery guy to leave this with you?” Steve asked, ignoring the other man’s comment. His eyes narrowed when he saw his name scribbled across the copy delivery note in a hand that wasn’t his. “You pretended to be me?” he demanded incredulously.

Jack laughed. “Your tad did,” he corrected, nodding towards the stairs. “If the driver had been with HPD ten years ago, they would have recognised me. But there was no worry about them knowing who Ianto was.”

Steve didn’t answer and Jack frowned. “Are you okay?” the older man asked, worry creeping into his voice where before there had only been amusement.

Stubbornly, Steve nodded his head. “I’m fine,” he insisted, reaching into one of his pockets and pulling out a pen knife.

Jack moved around the table. “No you’re not,” he argued, holding up a hand and stopping Steve from breaking the seal. “Ste, look at your hand.” Steve frowned and looked down. Jack was right. He was shaking like a leaf. “What happened?” Jack asked.

“I…” The words caught in his throat and he swallowed thickly, unable to admit what had happened upstairs. What would have probably followed had Ianto not interrupted. Telling Jack would make it real; too real. “I’ll be right back,” he muttered, dropping the knife to the table with a thud and disappearing into the kitchen before Jack could stop him.

Leaning against the counter, Steve closed his eyes and tried to breathe deeply. He had been taught to do manoeuvres underwater with minimal oxygen, but even that hadn’t hurt as much as it did right then to stop himself from passing out. 

He didn’t turn when he heard footsteps behind him. He knew it was Ianto. To say Jack had trained the assassin, he was incredibly heavy footed; while Ianto walked with carefully controlled steps that could only be heard when he wanted them to. “Tad, please can we not talk about this?” he begged, the Welsh words making his plea sound even more desperate somehow. 

“I just want to make sure you’re okay,” Ianto whispered, placing a gentle hand on his son’s back. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so panicked.” 

Steve laughed and shook his head. Panicked; that wasn’t even close to describing how he was feeling. The hand on his back disappeared and he turned his head, watching Ianto pull the fridge open. “Tad, I’m working,” he reminded him when the Welsh-man pulled out two bottles of beer.

Ianto closed the fridge. “Not in the state you’re in right now,” he corrected. He opened the bottles and placed a hand on Steve’s shoulder. “Come on. Will can keep Danny away for a while.”

The immortal steered Steve out of the back doors, and across the grass. “You know, I used to love sitting out here after we’d had a storm,” Ianto mused, handing one of the bottles to his son and dropping to the sand. “It was the only time you and your dad weren’t in the ocean.”

Steve couldn’t help smiling at the memory of his childhood that Ianto’s word conjured. While Ianto hadn’t been a huge fan of the ocean, Jack (who had been born on a beach settlement planet) had introduced their son to the water a little under three months after he’d been born. He had been addicted to the water ever since. 

After a heavy storm, he and Ianto had always found themselves sitting on the beach, watching the ocean as they discussed their day while Jack and Mary remained inside. “You could always move back,” Steve suggested, sitting beside his father and taking a swig of beer.

“Maybe one day,” Ianto replied, even though they both knew it was unlikely to happen. He and Jack had spent a long time on the islands, and had been known by a lot of people. Their continued presence would raise too many questions they couldn’t afford to answer. “At least we’re only a teleport away if you need us.”

Steve hummed in answer, his eyes glued to the small waves he could see. “Or if dad wants to sneak up on me in the garage.”

Ianto’s laugh was a little distracted as he focused on standing his beer upright in the sand. “Did you shoot him?” Steve shook his head and Ianto scowled. “Pity. It would have served him right.” His words didn’t surprise Steve; he had grown up listening to them on a semi-regular basis and Ianto only half meant them; or meant half of them – it was hard to tell sometimes.

“How long has there been something between you and Danny?” Ianto asked, leaning back on his hands and watching the ocean like Steve.

Steve sighed and glanced down at his bottle. He had known Ianto wouldn’t be able to not mention what he had seen in the bedroom. “There’s nothing between us,” he swore.

“How long have you wished there was?” Ianto corrected.

The younger man laughed and glanced at his watch. “About ten minutes.” He spotted Ianto looking at him out of the corner of his eye and he sighed. “I can’t believe we’re having this discussion,” he confessed. “I feel like I’m twelve, telling you about my new crush all over again.” He could feel his cheeks heating up and hated himself for blushing, but couldn’t stop.

“Only then it was Misty, the head cheerleader,” his father pointed out. “Not Brad, the Quarterback.” They were silent before, “When did it change?”

Steve let out a breath of air and flopped back onto the beach, staring up at the stars. He was getting sand in his hair, but didn’t care. “It didn’t… Today… I don’t know!” He groaned and ran his hands over his face. “I’ve never been…” He swallowed thickly; even saying the words was difficult. “I’ve never looked at another guy that way, until I met Danny.”

The corners of his mouth turned up in a smile. “He’s… infuriating like hell. He wears a tie in Hawaii, Tad!” Ianto laughed but remained silent, which Steve was grateful for; he needed to get out what he was thinking. “But he’s also brilliant. He knows exactly what to do; when to call me on my BS, or when to let me go along for the ride.”

Ianto grinned and rolled over, so he was lying on his front beside Steve, resting up on his elbows. “Sounds like you’ve finally found someone who can stand up to you, even when you’re in Super SEAL mode.”

Steve lifted his head and looked at Ianto, who raised an eyebrow in response. “That’s what Danny calls me when I come a little too close to crossing the line.”

The older man chuckled. “I think I’m starting to like this guy already.”

~

Danny watched Steve leave the bedroom as fast his legs could carry him. The haze that had covered him after his partner’s admission about his parents, had started to lift the instant Ianto had appeared.

Steve had reacted like he had been caught doing something highly illegal, and it would be obvious to even the blindest of people that he was clearly uncomfortable with what had nearly happened. It wouldn’t surprise Danny if they were going to witness a very straight freak out soon.

“Are you okay?” Ianto asked, thankfully now speaking English. He had no idea what language he had been speaking when he had addressed Steve earlier, but it hadn’t been any he was familiar with. 

Danny nodded his head silently. “I need to go check on Steve,” Ianto whispered and there was something similar to an apology in his voice. 

With another nod, Danny watched the other man leave the room and he was on his own again. He looked down at his hands and felt the corners of his mouth turn up in a smile. He wasn’t going to lie to himself; he had long since accepted that he had thought his partner was good looking – he would have to be dead to not know. It hadn’t been a revelation or a big deal, he had just walked into the office one day, mid-shirt change for Steve and felt a familiar feeling in his stomach.

It had been so long since he had been attracted to a man – two years before marrying Rachel if he really thought about it – that it had taken him longer than it should have to realise he wanted to find out first-hand what those tattoos tasted like.

Sighing softly, Danny pushed off the bed and slowly headed from the room. Neither Ianto nor Steve were anywhere in sight, Danny noticed when he reached the bottom of the stairs.

Jack was sitting on the couch, staring at the computer screen with a focused expression on his face. He looked so young, Danny thought to himself. It had been a long time since the general public had been made aware that there were aliens and other mystical beings amongst them, but despite his years with the NPD and then with the Five-0 taskforce, Danny had never actually found himself face to face with evidence of anything out of the ordinary.

To know that his partner’s parents were not only from the future, but immortal, made his head spin a little.

That said, the more he thought about it, the more he could see bits of Jack in Steve. He was definitely the biological parent.

Jack looked up when he sensed Danny standing there and a grin appeared on his face; the same grin Danny was used to seeing on Steve’s face – another piece of evidence for which parent was actually Steve’s.

“Hey,” he greeted, his blue eyes watching Danny slide into the chair on the opposite side of the coffee table. “Everything okay?”

There was something in his voice that suggested to Danny that Jack knew what had happened upstairs. Slowly Danny nodded his head and Jack raised an eyebrow. “You’re not going to freak out, are you?” Danny wasn’t sure if he was referring to the almost-kiss, or revelation.

Danny snorted with laughter and rolled his eyes. “Despite what people like to think, the bigger drama queen in this partnership is actually your son.”

Jack chuckled and closed the laptop. “He told you the full truth then.” Jack’s gaze studied him closely, so closely it made Danny uncomfortable. “You seem to be taking this exceptionally well,” he observed.

Danny glanced down at his hands. “It’s not like I expected something like this, but the arrival of two strangers who appeared to know each other and everything about Steve was a little too much of a coincidence, don’t you think?”

The older man laughed. “I suppose,” he conceded. “I don’t know what exactly Ste told you about us, but don’t be mad at him for not telling you sooner, okay?” Danny raised a questioning eyebrow and Jack continued, “He’s never told anyone the truth about me or Ianto, but I know he’s been wanting to tell you almost since the day you met.”

Danny drew in a deep breath at Jack’s words. Telling him something so secret about himself had been a huge display of trust on Steve’s part. To hear Jack say he had wanted to tell Danny the truth all along… The implications behind those words made his head spin a little.

Coughing lightly and trying to compose his emotions, Danny pushed himself upright and looked around the room. “Where are Steve and Ianto?” he asked softly.

Jack continued to stare at him for a moment, before he seemed to get the hint that Danny wanted to drop the subject for now. “Outside,” he replied. “Ste looked pretty shaken.”

Danny shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He was pretty certain he knew why Steve was feeling so shaken, but he wasn’t about to have that discussion with his partner’s father. Especially when he had no idea where it had come from; as far as he had known Steve was perfectly straight and he was pretty sure his reaction did nothing more than confirm his theory.

“Do you think I should go out there?” he asked, his eyes flickering over to the open lanai door.

Silence answered him and he looked up to see Jack looked at him with a bemused expression. Before he could question him further, Jack shook his head. “I wouldn’t,” he confessed. “Ste and Ianto are close for a very good reason. They’re far more alike than either would ever admit. When they get in one of their moods, there’s no talking to either of them. Best leave them to it,” Jack advised, handing Danny a magazine and opening the laptop once more.

An hour later, the blond was pretty sure he was going to lose his mind. He had tried to keep his attention focused on the magazine, but when Steve and Ianto hadn’t returned after a short while, he couldn’t stop his attention from drifting.

“This is ridiculous,” he muttered, through the publication down on the coffee table. Jack looked at him over the top of the laptop with a raised eyebrow. “Steve can’t keep hiding out there forever,” Danny added, getting to his feet.

Jack sighed and closed the laptop, following suit and blocking Danny’s exit before he could leave the room. “Relax,” the other man commanded, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “They won’t be long now.”

Danny frowned deeply. “What makes you so sure?” he demanded.

A hand on his shoulder steered him back to the chair he had vacated, and he really didn’t want to think about how easy it was for the other man to order him around without any words. “Because I’ve known Ianto for a long time, and Ste is exactly the same,” Jack reminded him, sitting down on the table in front of Danny. 

“They generally only have two operating functions; always on the go and usually blowing stuff up, or shooting people.” Jack had him there. “Or they spend hours sitting still, not speaking, just watching the world go by while they think. Since we haven’t heard any explosions, I think it’s a safe bet to think that it’s the latter of the two they’re doing right now.”

“Not quite,” Ianto’s voice sounded from the doorway. Danny’s head snapped around to look at him so fast he wouldn’t be surprised if he had given himself whiplash.

He was on his own.

“Where’s Steve?” Danny couldn’t stop himself from asking.

Ianto nodded over his shoulder. “He’s locking up in the kitchen.” There was more to his words, but Danny couldn’t decipher what he meant. He took a step to move into the other room, but Ianto stopped him with a raised hand and a small shake of his head. “Give him some time, Danny,” he whispered as he passed, his voice too low for Jack to hear.

“What’s in the box?” Ianto asked, shifting his gaze from Danny to Jack. The other man shrugged his shoulders and Ianto raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t looked?” he asked incredulously. Danny snorted; so being overly curious definitely ran in the family, he observed.

“It’s not my evidence,” Jack replied with a pout, folding his arms across his chest defensively.

Danny turned back to the kitchen door and he felt his breath catch in his throat – seriously? – at the sight of Steve standing in the doorway, looking bashful. “Hey,” he greeted softly, shifting from side to side like a nervous girl on her first date.

Steve returned his smile with one of his own, albeit a small, uncomfortable looking one, but it was a smile nevertheless. “Hey,” he replied, moving further into the room as he made a beeline for his parents. So, apparently they were going to avoid talking about what had happened.

At least for now. Danny knew he wasn’t going to let the SEAL get away with not dealing with what had occurred upstairs. But right then, they had a case they needed to solve, which they needed to focus on. Not themselves.

~

After his talk with Ianto, Steve had to admit that he did feel better about what had almost happened with Danny. Not that he was ready to talk to the Jersey detective about it yet.

Thankfully, for what Steve was sure had to be the first time in his life, Danny seemed to know when to leave well enough alone and not press Steve for answers to his questions.

They would have time for dealing with their feelings after the case had been solved and Hesse, Hart, whoever, had been caught.

Not listening to Jack and Ianto bicker, Steve crossed the room and picked up his pen-knife from where it was still lying on the coffee table. Part of him agreed with Ianto, he was surprised that Jack hadn’t looked inside the box while they had been outside. But the rest of him pointed out that Jack had been a cop, so he knew how important chain of evidence was.

Grateful that his hand wasn’t shaking anymore, Steve slit the evidence seal with practiced ease and pulled the box’s flaps back. Inside were the victim’s personal items from the house. While he had been waiting for Danny to return from the hospital, he had asked Fong to send them to him where he could look them through with Ianto. The immortal knew their victim the best, so if anyone could tell if something was different it would him.

Steve looked up when he felt the presence of someone standing next to him. It was Danny, who was holding out a pair of black latex gloves. “Thanks,” he whispered, taking them from his partner.

After snapping the gloves on, Steve reached into the box and pulled out the first thing he touched. A bunch of books – most of which Steve had never even heard of.

“Well, this guy was a bookworm,” Steve murmured, handing the books to Ianto who accepted them with his own gloved hand.

Ianto grinned and nodded his head. “When he wasn’t working Harley usually had his nose buried in a book,” he agreed. “Usually something to do with Sci-Fi.” At the incredulous looks he received, he laughed. “I know. I tried to tell him that he was taking his work home with him, but he wouldn’t have any of it.”

Jack snorted and rolled his eyes, moving around his partner so he could look into the box. “I take it he wasn’t much of a note-taker,” he observed, pulling out a single notebook which was empty.

“Normally he was,” Ianto disagreed. “But he wasn’t working out here,” he reminded the other man.

The Captain shrugged, and tossed the notebook aside. As the spiral bound book hit the table, a piece of paper fluttered out and they all paused. It was the same type of paper as the notebook, but had clearly been torn out in a hurry. Only half of the pre-cut line had been used.

Silently, Steve reached out and plucked the paper from the table. On it was written the same word, in the same hand as the note he had found at the crime scene.  
Shelburne.

“There’s that word again!” Danny exclaimed, reading over Steve’s shoulder. “What the hell does it mean?”

Steve shrugged and handed the note to Jack, who was waiting for it expectantly with his hand out. “I’ll have Kono run it when we go into the lab; see if anything pops and…” He trailed off when he looked up and noticed that Jack was looking at the note with a confused expression on his face. “Tad, he’s thinking again.”

Ianto snorted and Jack lifted his head to glare at his son. “Did you say you’ve seen this before?” Jack asked, looking between Danny and Steve.

“At our crime scene,” Danny answered. “Your guy had it written on a piece of paper in his wallet. Why?”

Jack didn’t answer and Steve put his hands on his hips. “Does this mean something to you, dad?” he demanded, trying to make his ‘Commander in Charge’ voice as strong as possible.

Whether it was the words, or the tone, that did the trick, Steve didn’t know, but Jack snapped out of his daze and looked across at the SEAL. “I have no idea,” he confessed, the confusion still evident on his face and in his voice. “I recognise it, but I have no idea where from.”

~

Jack drummed his fingers against the chair arm and looked around guiltily. Ianto and Steve had left earlier to pick-up take-out, and Danny had disappeared upstairs not long ago.

Leaving the Captain to his own devices. 

Which never ended well, even Jack would admit that. He had been trying to work out where he remembered ‘Shelburne’ from, and while the word had been tugging at his memory ever since they had found the note, he couldn’t put his finger on where he knew it from.

As soon as his partner and son had left, Jack had jumped up and grabbed the laptop Ianto had brought with him. His own had been left in Chicago, and Steve’s wasn’t as powerful. Ianto’s would work just fine. Plus, he knew the other man’s password, which was always a bonus.

After fishing a wire out of the pocket of his coat, Jack had set about connecting his vortex manipulator to the laptop. If he had come across the word Shelburne before, chances are it would be on the device.

The computer had been trying to process the data ever since, but it was starting to struggle. Jack had been alive for over five hundred years (he didn’t count the time he had been buried half alive-half dead), and had been using his Vortex Manipulator ever since. 

That was a lot of data to download.

He jumped when the front door opened, making Ianto look at him with a raised eyebrow. “What are you doing?” he demanded, his blue eyes landing on the laptop.

Jack followed his gaze and swallowed nervously. He would never admit it to anyone, but he was actually terrified of his partner sometimes; Jack knew he really was lucky he couldn’t permanently die. “Looking for something,” he confessed bashfully.

Ianto’s eyes narrowed. “By hooking your Vortex Manipulator to my laptop?” he asked, placing the pizza he was holding on the coffee table.

Steve snorted and shook his head, moving into the kitchen muttering, “Good luck,” under his breath as he passed Jack.

The Captain growled and squared his shoulders, sitting fully upright and trying to put on a front even though he knew Ianto would be able to see through it perfectly. “I’m trying to work out why I’ve heard the name Shelburne before,” he informed the assassin. “Chances are it’s on there somewhere, and I…” He touched the mouse pad and froze when nothing happened on the computer.

Beside him, Ianto folded his arms across his chest and looked at him with an expectant expression. “Go on,” he instructed.

Jack didn’t answer as he tried to move the mouse again. Still nothing. He glanced at his Vortex Manipulator out of the corner of his eye and groaned when he saw a flashing red light. The thing had overloaded. Ianto was going to kill him. “Okay, so it didn’t quite work how I expected it to,” he confessed, trying to turn the laptop away from Ianto.

Before he could, the other man snatched the device from him and pressed a few buttons. “You were trying to download your entire life’s worth of information onto a laptop that’s not even plugged into the mainframe?” Ianto asked slowly, sinking into his chair and setting the computer on his lap.

“It’s not like I did it on purpose!” Jack exclaimed. “How was I supposed to know what’d happen?” he added when he looked up to find himself looking down the barrel of Ianto’s gun.

Silently, Ianto cocked the hammer back and Jack was certain he was going to die in their old living room; which he was pretty certain Steve would be pissed about. Before he could pull the trigger, they heard someone come down the stairs and Jack had never been more grateful to see Danny.

“Well,” Danny murmured sarcastically as he reached the bottom and took in Ianto pointing a gun at Jack. “At least now I know where Steve gets his ‘shoot first, ask questions never’ from.”

Steve laughed from where he had appeared in the door to the kitchen and rolled his eyes. “Tad’s worse than I am,” he swore, handing Ianto a beer and ducking to the side before his father could hit him.

Danny followed, sitting in the free chair while Steve sat beside Jack. “Yeah, about that,” he began, looking between Steve and Ianto. “What does… tad… even mean?” The word sounded a bit strangled coming out of Danny’s mouth and Steve had to suppress a grin. It wasn’t exactly a word that popped up in general conversation outside of Wales. It made sense the other man would struggle a little to pronounce it.

“It means ‘dad’ in Welsh,” Ianto answered for Steve, sliding his gun back into his belt. “We,” he waved his hand to indicate Jack as well, “spent a lot of time in Wales so all our kids have called me ‘tad’.”

The blond looked over at Steve who shook his head, clearly already knowing what he was going to ask. “When you’re ready for another crash course in time travel, I’ll explain our family,” he assured his partner, pulling a small smile from Danny. “Tad, what were you planning on shooting dad for this time?” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Danny frown and had to bite back a laugh; this must all seem so strange to the Jersey born man. He’ll get used to it, a little voice whispered in the back of his head, but he ignored that for now (especially since the little voice sounded like a very smug Ianto).

Ianto’s expression turned murderous again as he glared at Jack, but thankfully this time he didn’t reach for his gun. “Your father, in his infinite wisdom, decided to try load his entire life’s worth of data onto my laptop and killed it.”

“What?” Jack shrieked, making Steve and Danny wince. “I crashed it. Saying I killed it is a little over-dramatic, Ianto!”

The assassin raised an eyebrow in response. “Is that why I’m having to reset everything?” he snapped, before switching to Frezian. “You’re lucky you’re immortal, Kanaris,” he snarled.

“Whoa!” Danny explained, holding his hands up. “Do me a favour, while I’m in the room, can the three of you please speak English. I have no idea what that was, but I know it wasn’t any language of this planet. Never mind what you two were talking in upstairs,” he added, waving a finger between Steve and Ianto.

The corners of Ianto’s mouth curled up in a smile and he slowly nodded his head. “I think we can do that,” he assured the detective. “And, for reference, what I just said then was in Frezian; the universal language that’s spoken where Jack and I come from. When I was talking to Steve earlier, that was Welsh.”

Danny let out a hum of understanding. “That’s great, but English from now on, okay?”

Ianto laughed and inclined his head slightly. “I’m sure we can do that,” he agreed softly, looking back at his laptop and pressing a few keys neither of them could see.

“Why were you using my laptop, anyway?” Ianto asked, looking up at his partner. “Steven has a perfectly working computer and he’s less likely to shoot you than I am.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Ste’s computer isn’t as powerful as yours. I knew loading that much information would put strain on the laptop, but thought yours could handle it. Maybe you need to upgrade,” he quipped, chuckling when Ianto growled under his breath. “I need a better network,” he added, turning his gaze to Steve.

Both Five-0 team members understood the implications of Jack’s words at the same time, and both shook their heads. “Forget about it, dad,” Steve instructed.

A pout appeared on the older man’s face. “Come on, Ste. Clearly whatever Shelburne is has something to do with the case. If you’ve got a better idea, I’m all ears.” The rest of them were silent and Jack smirked. “See, this is the only option we have.”

Steve, however, was not buying it and folded his arms across his chest. “Forget about it, dad. You were a cop for years; walking into the police station is too dangerous. Someone is bound to recognise you.”

~

Steve really had no idea how he let himself get talked into these things. One minute he had been arguing with Jack about going to the Palace, the next minute he was handing Ianto the keys to the Silverado and climbing into their Camaro (surely Danny didn’t still think it was just his?).

It was the bedroom incident all over again.

Luckily no-one even looked twice in their direction as both cars pulled into Steve and Danny’s parking spaces.

“See, I told you nothing bad would happen,” Jack quipped, falling into step beside his son as they headed into the building. “Everything’s fine.”

Steve threw a glare over his shoulder as he jabbed the elevator call button. “Don’t say that,” he snapped. “In horror movies the person who says that is always the first to die!”

Jack laughed and leant close enough to whisper, “Then it’s a good job I can’t die, isn’t it?”

Of course, as with anything, Jack’s words came back to bite them in the ass not much later. When they arrived at the Five-0 office, to be exact. 

Chin and Kono were both standing by the computer table, which won’t have been a problem if Chin hadn’t looked up at the exact moment they walked through the door and a look of recognition crossed his face when his dark eyes landed on Jack.

Steve winced and felt like smacking himself (and Jack). How could they have forgotten that his father had trained a rookie Chin when he had graduated from the police academy. 

The other man’s gaze moved from Jack, to Steve and back again. “Captain McGarrett,” he greeted, moving away from the table and saluting as he came to a stop in front of Jack.

Jack let out a small noise which sounded suspiciously like a whimper and looked at Steve in alarm. “Er, Chin, this is…” Steve began, but trailed off helplessly; he had no idea what he was supposed to tell someone who knew his father so well. Using the excuse that Jack was on ‘old friend from the navy’ wouldn’t fly with Chin.

Chin turned to glare at him. “Don’t try to tell me this isn’t my mentor, Steve,” he instructed, looking back at Jack. “I don’t know how it’s possible for you to still look the same, Sir. And I don’t want to,” he added pointedly, when Steve opened his mouth. “But it’s good to see you.”

They were silent as Jack took in what the other man was saying. Both Ianto and Steve knew how much it had hurt Jack to have to leave Hawaii, when he had gotten so close to Chin. He had been feeling guilty about it for years. Which was why, Steve couldn’t believe he had managed to forget the connection between his employee and father. 

After a minute, a smile spread across Jack’s face and Steve couldn’t help but grin as well; his smile really was infectious to all around. Except maybe Ianto. “It’s good to see you too, Chin,” Jack replied, holding his hand out and shaking Chin’s firmly.

“Erm, guys,” Kono said, getting their attention as she too moved away from the computer table and stopped beside Chin.

Steve grinned. He might as well tell her the truth about who Jack and Ianto really were; it wasn’t fair for the others to know, but not her. “These are my parents, Jack and Ianto,” he introduced. “Guys, this is Kono Kalakaua.”

Confusion appeared on Kono’s face, and she stared at Steve with a questioning expression, before apparently deciding what was going on wasn’t worth the headache it would likely give her. “Nice to meet you,” she greeted, shaking Ianto’s hand and then Jack’s. “Did Gwyn manage to sort the video out?” she asked, looking at Steve and focusing on the case. 

Steve nodded his head; he had called her earlier so she didn’t waste her time trying to sort the video out when Gwyn had helped them. “It’s Victor Hesse,” he answered simply, moving to the table and pressing a number of keys. “Looks like I’m going to have to try harder next time I have a shot at killing him.”

He pulled up a report and a bunch of photo’s, each of which showed Victor Hesse in various locations. As well as the mug shot that had been taken of him during the Belfast bombings he had actively been a part of.

“This is everything we know about Victor Hesse at the minute,” he said, watching the others gather around the table. “He first came to our attention eighteen months ago when he arrived in Hawaii from Belfast, where he was arrested but never charged in connection with three bombings in the city centre.”

Ianto leant his elbows on the table and read the writing displayed on the screen before him. “It says here that he was killed in a gunfight.”

Steve nodded, pressing a few keys and pulling up details about the first case Five-0 had worked on. “The Governor set us up with the intention of tackling the human trafficking problem. Hesse and his brother were at the centre of the smuggling ring. We received word that Anton Hesse was recruiting on the North Shore and, after setting up a sting operation, we were able to capture him.”

“But not his brother, Victor,” Danny said, moving so he was standing beside Steve; trying to ignore the feel of the other man’s body heat. 

Silently, Ianto reached out and tapped the image of Anton Hesse, blowing it up to full screen so they could all see better. “Well, I don’t know who this man is, but he’s not related to Hesse,” Jack deduced, clearly sticking to one name to avoid confusion all around. “Ignoring the fact that Hesse isn’t from ‘round here, he was an only child.”

All of them – including Ianto – turned to look at him in surprise and he shrugged his shoulders. “When you work with someone for an extended period of time, you’d be amazed what you talk about,” he murmured. 

Ianto snorted and shook his head. “That’s why working with a partner is dangerous,” he muttered. “You end up revealing things they could eventually use against you.”  
Jack rolled his eyes and reached into his pocket. “You were just my work partner at one point, Ianto,” he pointed out, setting his vortex manipulator on the table and continuing to search his pockets.

Knowing what the other man was looking for, Ianto reached into his own jacket and pulled out the wire that would connect the device to the computer. “And look where that got you,” he replied, handing the wire to Jack.

As soon as the Vortex Manipulator was connected to the computer, the file they had been viewing disappeared, making both Chin and Kono let out a yelp of surprise. Steve chuckled. “It’s okay,” he assured them. “You remember that note I found in our victim’s wallet?” Both nodded. “Dad’s trying to work out what it means, and this is the only computer on Hawaii powerful enough to run the program.” 

The cousins let out a murmur of understanding and shifted their focus to watch the information flying across the screen, just like the others. Steve knew it must be an odd thing to watch; the words were in Frezian and, while he could read and write fluently in the language, he imagined it would look strange to those who had never seen it before. Instead of reading left to right, or right to left, the words on the page read from top to bottom, and each word looked like a mixture between Arabic, Greek and ancient Egyptian. 

Beside him, Steve sensed Danny leaning closer before he heard a whispered, “You actually understand this?” Steve chuckled and nodded his head silently. Danny whistled and chuckled in amazement. “You surprise me every day, babe.”

Normally the endearment wouldn’t have affected Steve; Danny used it all the time, after all. But this time, it made something inside him stir and, to his surprise, he didn’t feel bothered by that.

Before he could dwell on the feeling, Jack let out a whoop of joy and they all stared at the screen. Immediately Steve knew what had caught his father’s attention. “Tad, what did you say Hesse’s real name was?” he asked, not taking his eyes from the writing.

Ianto reacted exactly the same as he answered the question, never looking away. “Mike. I never did find out his last name.”

“Looks like we know it now,” Jack retorted. “Shelburne.”

~

Prison life didn’t agree with Sang Min, Steve thought to himself as a prison guard escorted the man into the room beyond the bullet proof glass. The last time they had seen him, Sang Min had been taking advantage of being in charge of a smuggling ring. Now, his hair was limp and lacked the shine it had once had, his skin was pale and orange really wasn’t his colour.

As soon as he saw Danny and Steve waiting for him, a smirk appeared on his face; the same smirk Chin had tried to knock off with an ashtray the last time they had been in the same room. Steve made a mental note to remind Chin he needed to try harder next time.

Heaving a deep sigh, Danny sat down and lifted the receiver; they had agreed that the blond would do most of the talking. Or rather, Danny had decided, Steve just hadn’t been bothered to argue with him about it.

Glaring at the guard for pushing him into the seat, Sang Min picked up the phone with his cuffed hands. “Back so soon?” he greeted, dark eyes flickering between Danny, Steve, and back again.

“What can I say, I missed your smile,” Danny retorted, rolling his eyes.

“Let me guess. You need my help.”

Steve leant against the divider that offered the illusion of privacy between them and the people next door. “We found out Victor Hesse is still alive.” So much for the idea of letting Danny take the lead; Steve was really starting to think Danny was right about him having issues.

Sang Min raised an eyebrow as he looked up at Steve. “You’re not a very good shot are you,” he mocked, and Steve had never been more grateful of the glass between them.

From the seat, Danny sighed heavily, and tapped on the glass, turning Sang Min’s attention back to him. “Listen to me,” he instructed. “Victor Hesse has been living here off the grid for the last four months. We know your business is keeping people under the radar. So we,” he indicated to himself and Steve, “thought you could help us find him.”

“Well you thought wrong,” Sang Min muttered, moving to replace the receiver.

Before he could cut off their connection completely, Danny snapped, “Just tell us where he is.”

Sang Min paused and glanced back at the half of Five-0 in front of him, before slowly lifting the receiver back to his ear. “Detective, I already helped you once. And look where that got me.”

Steve sighed heavily; this was why he didn’t like doing things Danny’s way. His methods were so much quicker sometimes. “It’s in your best interest to help us now.”

One dark eyebrow lifted towards his eye line. “In case you didn’t notice, I’m already in prison. I don’t see how me not helping you right now would make things any worse.” 

Danny and Steve exchanged questioning glances, before Danny shrugged his shoulders and Steve leant closer. The receiver could pick up both of them from where he was, but he didn’t want his meaning to be misconstrued. The fact that his new position meant he was closer to Danny, was nothing more than a coincidence. “Listen to me, I’m gonna find Victor Hesse with or without you. If I find him without you, I’m gonna tell him that you’re the one who led me to him six months ago.” He paused, letting the words sink in, before adding, “How do you think he’s gonna feel? How long do you think you’re gonna last in here when everyone finds out you’re a rat.

This time it was Danny’s turn to smirk as he looked back at Sang Min. “Take your time.”

There was no mistaking the look of hatred in Sang Min’s eyes as he looked between the pair of them. They knew he had no choice, and judging by the look on his face, so did Sang Min. “Kishimoto,” he eventually said so quietly Steve barely heard it through the phone.

“What? Who’s Kishimoto?” Steve demanded, exchanging a quick glance with Danny who looked as blank as he did.

Sang Min sighed impatiently and Steve couldn’t help but wonder if they were supposed to have heard of this man. “He’s a facilitator for the Japanese underground in Honolulu. He’s the man to see if your visa expires and you don’t wanna go home. He sets you up with papers, real estate, cars whatever you need.”

“If this guy is so connected how do we know he hasn’t already helped Hesse off the island?” Danny challenged.

The convict looked at him as though he were stupid to even ask. “Because that’s not what he does. That’s what I do,” he pointed out, his tone not dissimilar from that of an adult talking to a child too young to understand.

Steve huffed in annoyance and shifted. His patience, of which he didn’t have much to start with, was wearing thin. “Just get us a meeting,” he commanded.

Sang Min smirked in a way neither Steve nor Danny liked. “No way you’ll get in there unless I’m there.” Both of them shook their heads firmly, there was no way what Sang Min wanted was going to happen. The long haired man shrugged his shoulders. “Suit yourself, but like you said; you need me.” When their expressions didn’t change, Sang Min added, “Look detectives, you gotta ask yourselves; How badly do I wanna find Victor Hesse?”

~

Steve looked up at the club and frowned. Something about this didn’t sit right with him, and he was pretty sure it was something to do with the fact that they had been coerced into letting Sang Min out of the pen for the day. Sang Min had led them to Kishimoto, who in turn had pointed them to a private hostess bar.

It felt like they were being set up, and whatever they were about to walk into was going to get real nasty, really quick.

Glancing over his shoulder, he watched Danny finish cuffing Sang Min to the handle of the Camaro. “Comfortable enough for you?” the detective asked.

Sang Min scowled and shifted his arm. “It would be better if you lost the cuff.”

Danny let out a bark of laughter, before shoving the convict into the vehicle and closing the door. “You ready, babe?” he asked, moving to stand beside Steve.

The SEAL nodded his head and checked his gun, under the pretence of making sure it was secure. In reality he was trying to get himself under control about the way Danny said ‘babe’; was it really going to affect him every time he said it now? That was going to be a problem.

Bar 35 was a Private Hostess Bar that, apparently Victor Hesse liked to lay low in. Danny had never heard of the place, but Steve had and on the way over had seen fit to clue the other man in on what exactly a Hostess did.

And the detective still couldn’t get his head around the idea, judging by the confusion in his voice.

“It still doesn’t make sense,” Danny crumbled, following Steve through the unmanned doorway and up a flight of concrete stairs. Those stairs led up to a room disproportionately filled with more men than women, with a few Christmas trees scattered here and there to make the place appear ‘festive’.

“Why would anyone pay money to just talk to these women?” he continued, looking over his shoulder at Steve. “I mean, I’m sure they’re lovely people and all, but… really?”

Steve sighed heavily. “I don’t know, Danno,” he said wearily. “Maybe they’re lonely and this is the only place they can come.” They ducked through a chain-mail curtain, emerging in yet another room filled with men talking to women in tight dress. “Can we just focus?”

The words were barely out of his mouth when a curtain on the other side of the room parted and a familiar figure stepped through.

At first Steve didn’t think anything of the new comer. He was dressed exactly the same as the other men in the room in a sharp suit that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a boardroom. It was only when he saw the other man’s face that Steve realised who he was looking at. 

Victor Hesse.

The three of them seemed to realise who they were facing at the same time. Hesse’s eyes widened a split second before Danny muttered ‘fuck’ under his breath, then chaos broke out.

Hesse turned on his heel and bolted through the curtain. Steve, not wasting any time, took off after him, drawing his gun out as he went. Behind him, he knew Danny was following, but didn’t pay him any attention. He needed to catch Hesse before he got away.

Following the man through the building, Steve arrived on the fire-escape less than thirty seconds after Hesse, and just in time to see him dive into the passenger seat of the Camaro. He lifted his gun to fire, but the car was out of his eye line and the opportunity passed in the blink of an eye.

Thanks to Sang Min and his apparent lock-picking skills, they were transport-less. Not that something so trivial had ever stopped Steve before.

“A taxi?” Danny exclaimed, jogging to a halt at the bottom of the stairs and taking a deep breath. “Really?”

Steve glared at his partner over the roof of the car, before opening the door. “Since you left Sang Min cuffed in the Chevy, we don’t exactly have a choice, do we?” He paused when he realised Danny hadn’t moved. “Are you coming, or not? The longer we stand here and talk about it, the further away they get.”

Danny’s eyes narrowed into a glare, but he didn’t argue as he pulled open the passenger door and slid inside, slamming it closed with more force than was needed.

In the minutes that followed, Steve was treated to Danny yelling at him for a whole plethora of things which ranged from not waiting until they had seatbelts on before setting off, to driving on the sidewalk. Most were arguments he’d heard before, but some were new.

Apparently Danny could be pretty creative in stressful situations when he wanted to be.

“Okay, they’re stopping,” Danny announced after a few blocks. Steve glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and saw that he was looking at his phone, and probably the GPS from Sang Min’s ankle bracelet. “At Ala Moana Harbour.”

Quickly Steve thought, before advising, “Call my tad; he’s closest.” 

~

It was a beautiful night, Ianto thought to himself as he looked out over the water of Ala Moana Harbour. He had always loved driving over to Waikiki with Jack on ‘date night’; after eating at one of the many restaurants that lined the area, they would always walk past the boats, speculating about who owned them. Jack’s theories had always been more elaborate than realistic, but somehow they had stuck in Ianto’s memory and recalling them now was no harder than remembering his own birthday.

He started when his phone rang, pulling him from his memories of the past. He couldn’t help feeling guilt flash through him when he saw his son’s image pop up. They had all split up in an attempt to find Hesse, while Danny and Steve followed up a lead. But Ianto had been sitting at the harbour for more than half an hour, lost in his own thoughts.

Shaking his head to clear it, Ianto connected the call. “Hey.”

The voice that replied wasn’t Steve’s, but Danny’s. “Listen, where are you?”

Immediately, the nostalgia he had been feeling disappeared and Ianto sat upright. “At the harbour,” he answered. “What’s wrong? Where’s Steven?” he demanded.

“I’m here,” Steve’s voice answered, sounding distracted.

Ianto realised the breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding, but before he could say anything Danny came back on the line. “He’s driving,” the detective explained. “We found Hesse, but he took off. GPS places him at Ala Moana Harbour.”

Comprehension dawned on Ianto, quickly followed by rage. He was going to fine Hesse, Hart, Mike – whatever - and kill the bastard once and for all. Just like he should have done centuries ago. “I’m on it,” he replied, cancelling the call before either of them could argue.

Sliding the phone back into his pocket, Ianto started the engine of the motorcycle he had temporarily pulled out of storage. He didn’t like them, and would argue a motion to ban them completely if asked, but even he had to admit; they could come in handy when they wanted to.

He would never tell anyone that, though. That would be the same as admitting he was wrong, and Ianto Jones was never wrong.

On arrival, the dock looked to be deserted. There were no cars, no bikes, and no people. The only things Ianto could see were boats, and at a harbour that wasn’t exactly unusual.

Stopping the bike, he called Steve/Danny back. “I’m here,” he greeted, still scanning the area. “Where is he?” There was no way he could manually search every boat and slip without Hesse getting away.

“At the end of a dock,” Danny answered. “Slip 71. He’s not moving. He must be inside.”

Ianto nodded to himself and cancelled the call, pulling his gun out as he went. He was sure he remembered slip 71 being down the far end of the harbour (Jack’s theory had been that the owners were moguls in the porn industry who used the boat as a location).

Quietly slipping on board the boat, it was obvious that it hadn’t been used for a long time (for porn, or otherwise). Everything was stripped back to its bare origin. Whoever’s boat it was had clearly not been planning to use it for a while.

Everything was silent as Ianto moved through the vessel. There were no footsteps, nothing rustling. It was too quiet for Ianto’s liking. As he checked the kitchen and came up empty, he paused, cocking his head of the side as he listened.

It was faint, but there was a definite beeping sound coming from further into the boat. It was hard to tell, but Ianto was pretty sure it was coming from the third room on the right; he was a little out of practice, so he couldn’t tell for certain.

Cautiously approaching the room, Ianto tightened his hold on the gun and used his free hand to push the door further open. It was a bedroom, with a bed as bare as the rest of the boat. As soon as the door was opened fully, his eyes landed on what had been the cause of the beeping.

A flashing ankle bracelet was lying on the centre of the mattress. With no leg attached to it.

Then a white-hot pain blossomed on the back of his head and everything went dark.

~

Steve was running so fast that Danny was pretty sure he was going to barrel through the cop standing guard on the scene. Not that he blamed his partner for being so worried. If it was one of his parents in Ianto’s position, Danny knew there was no way he could remain calm.

Jack wasn’t much far behind him either.

“Shit!” Jack swore as they drew level with Ianto. The other man was kneeling less than thirty feet away from the front of Five-0 headquarters, with an unmistakable bomb collar around his neck.

At the sound of Jack’s voice, Ianto’s eyes lifted from where they had been on the ground and glared at them. The rest of his body didn’t move, which Danny knew he would be forever grateful for.

His eyes flickered to the rest of them, and narrowed when he saw Steve and Danny standing over him. “Danny, Steven, what are you doing here?”

Steve moved to kneel in front of him, so they were eye level. “You’re not going anywhere; neither am I,” he said with so much conviction it was almost painful to hear.

Ianto growled. “Do I need to remind you that it won’t make a difference if Hesse kills me?” he snapped, before lowering his voice. “I’m immortal; you’re not.”

Sensing there was going to be some kind of father-son fight, Jack stepped up to Steve, placing a hand on his shoulder to silence whatever argument he had been about to come up with. “What happened, Ianto?” he asked softly. There was also an urgency to his voice, but it was obviously being overridden by his personal feelings for Ianto.

“We got to the harbour, but you’d already gone,” Danny added.

Jack smirked. “Gwyn is going to kill you for taking his bike out of storage without asking, you know?” He laughed and rolled his eyes. “And he’s never going to let you live it down, considering how much hell you’ve given him over the years for riding them.”

Ianto’s eyes narrowed in a glare that made Danny grateful Steve hadn’t inherited that particular trait. There was no way he wanted to see that expression every other day. “I was checking out the boat, when I heard a beeping,” Ianto started to explain. “I went to check it out, and it was the ankle bracelet from your guy; looks like he’s in the wind.”

Steve waved his hand dismissively and Danny agreed with the silent statement. Sang Min was the least of their worries right then, unless he was with Hesse; in which case he’d get what was coming to him. 

“I have no idea how, but I got hit from behind and I blacked out,” Ianto continued. “Next thing I know, I’m waking up here with the hood on my head and this around my neck.”

Danny sighed and ran a hand over his face. “Babe,” he said, getting Steve’s attention. “Any idea what kind of device it is?”

It really was impressive how still Ianto stayed while Steve inspected the device; Danny really wanted to ask how he was doing it, but knew it wasn’t exactly the right time. “It looks like a mercury motion detector,” he eventually answered. “One move is going to trigger the detonator.”

The whoosh of air that followed could have come from any of them, and Danny was pretty certain it did. Before any of them could say anything further, a phone started ringing. From Ianto’s shirt pocket. A phone that wasn’t his, judging by the look on his face.

“And that would be him calling with demands, I would imagine,” Ianto said, completely deadpanned. “Clearly watches too many movies.”

Jack snorted as Steve pulled out the phone. “Like you can comment,” the other man pointed out.

“He’s probably going to ask for a helicopter and a million dollars, or else I’m dead,” Ianto continued with a roll of his eyes; the only part of his body he was allowing himself to move – well, other than his mouth.

Steve glared at him as he glanced down at the screen. From where he was, Danny could see that it was a burner cell, and obviously one Hesse had placed in Ianto’s pocket for this exact reason. “Well that’s not going to happen.”

Ianto growled. “You know it makes no difference.”

“I don’t care.” Without saying another word, Steve connected the call. “Victor,” he greeted. “Or should I call you Mike?” Silence followed and Steve continued, “That’s right; I know all about you.” At least, he knew what he needed to and that was good enough for him.

A soft chuckle answered him, before Hesse responded, “Oh, I’m sure there are something’s your daddy hasn’t been completely truthful with you about.”

Steve’s eyes flickered over to Jack, but he didn’t say anything to the Captain. Instead, he focused on Hesse. “I know enough to know that no-one’s going to miss you when we kill your sorry ass.”

Hesse clicked his tongue audibly. “That’s not very nice,” he chided mockingly. “I’d like to speak to Jack now.”

“No.”

Steve heard Hesse hiss, before he said, “You listen to me, either put Jack on the line now, or else I’m going to detonate the bomb, and Eye Candy can help decorate for Christmas. The choice is up to you.”

His eyes drifted toward Jack again and the other man frowned. “What?” he mouthed.

Sighing heavily, Steve moved the phone away from his ear and covered the microphone with his hand. “He wants to talk to you.”

Immediately, Jack held a hand out expectantly, but before Steve could hand the phone over, Ianto snapped, “Don’t you dare, Will.” 

Jack glared at his partner. “I don’t have a choice,” he muttered, taking the phone from Steve and pulling it to his ear. “Mike,” he greeted.

The sigh he heard in response wasn’t that of the irritated variety and Jack shuddered to think what thoughts could be running through the other Time Agent’s mind. “It’s good to hear your voice again,” Hesse whispered. “Three years is a long time.”

Well, that answered Jack’s first question; how long it had been for Hesse since they had last seen each other. Three years since he had caused the deaths of Tosh and Owen.

“Not long enough,” Jack responding, pushing thoughts of his team out of his mind. Now wasn’t the time to be focusing on the dead; it was about making sure the bomb didn’t detonate. Sure, it wouldn’t do anything to Ianto other than piss him off, but to Steve, Danny and everyone else, it would be disastrous.

“What do you think you’re going to accomplish by doing this?” he snapped.

“Everything I’ve wanted all along,” Mike replied as though his meaning was obvious. “For you to come to your senses and realise that you belong with me, not him.”

Jack laughed. He couldn’t help it. The other man was still harbouring the delusion that Jack and Ianto were nothing more than a fling; admittedly, he didn’t know how anything about their family, but it was still laughable. “You’re not still playing that song, are you?” he mocked.

Mike snarled and Jack knew he had pushed him a little bit too far. He just hoped it wasn’t far enough that he would detonate the bomb; not while Steve and Danny were so close. “There’s a field across Farrington in Waipahu, meet me there in one hour.”

“There’s a lot of fields in Waipahu,” Jack snapped.

Mike chuckled. “You’ll see me,” he assured the Captain. “Oh, and make sure you come alone, Jack. We wouldn’t want you losing any more of your precious team would we?”

~

“No!” Ianto yelled. “Absolutely not.”

Jack sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Do you think I like this any more than you do?” he snapped, leaning back on his hands where he was sat on the asphalt and looking at Ianto. “He said he’s going to kill you if I don’t show up.”

“And that is not going to make a difference,” Ianto snarled. “You shouldn’t even be thinking about this. You should be making sure Steven, Danny and everyone else in this area gets out of here. Then I’ll detonate the bomb myself.”

Danny leant forward where he was sat – they had all decided it was easier to be on Ianto’s level – and held his hand up. “Whoa, hold up. I know Steve told me you guys are immortal, but are you seriously suggesting that you could recover from an explosion like that?”

Somehow, and none of them were sure how he managed it, Ianto appeared to shrug with his eyes. “Honestly, I don’t know; I’ve never died like that before. But he,” his eyes flickered over to Jack, “has, and look at him now; alive and fully intact.”

“It took hours to fully recover, Ianto, and we don’t even know if the same thing would happen to you,” Jack snapped. He glanced at his watch. “We can’t sit here and talk about this any longer. I’m going, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Ianto sighed heavily, but muttered, “Fine.” They all knew he wanted to argue further, but thankfully logic seemed to be taking over and he was thinking clearly.

Until, that is, Steve decided to add, “I’m going with you.”

All three of them erupted at once.

“Like Hell you are!” Danny.

“Over my dead body.” Ianto.

“That might actually be a good idea.” Jack.

Both Danny and Ianto turned their attention to Jack and were looking at him like he was a traitor.

Clearly reading their minds, Jack shrugged his shoulders. “Well, obviously he’s not going to be in plain sight. I need a backup, and after you,” he looked at Ianto, “there’s no one else I trust.” The furious expression didn’t shift from Ianto’s face. “If Hesse kills me before I have chance to disarm the bomb, we’re screwed.”

Silence fell over them for a beat, before Ianto scowled and muttered, “I hate when you’re right.”

Jack laughed and got to his feet, holding out a hand for Steve. When Danny didn’t move, Steve raised an eyebrow. “I’ll stay here,” he said softly.

Steve swallowed thickly. “D-,” he began, but Danny cut him off with a wave of the hand.

“You’d do the same for me,” Danny pointed out. “I’m staying with your tad, you two go. Just… come back to me, okay?” 

~

The drive to Waipahu was silent and uneventful, until half way there when Steve glanced at Jack and sighed when he saw the thoughtful expression on the other man’s face.

“Just say it,” he instructed from the back seat where he was checking his sniper rifle.

Jack chuckled. “You and Danny, huh?”

Steve rolled his eyes, but he could tell that his cheeks were colouring. “Not yet, but when this is over…” He shrugged his shoulders. “Hopefully,” he confessed, wishing with all his might that he wasn’t feeling so bashful.

“It’s taken you long enough,” Jack said, keeping his eyes firmly glued on the road, but Steve could tell that there was a smile plastered on the other man’s face. “We’re nearly there,” Jack said, changing the subject so quickly that it took Steve a minute process what he meant. “Get ready to get out,” he instructed.

Steve nodded his head and shifted on the seat, hand poised over the door handle. Before he opened the door, he heard Jack call his name and looked up.

“If you get compromised at all, get out of here.” Steve opened his mouth, but before he could argue, Jack added, “I mean it, Ste. I am not going to lose you; especially not to him.”

Even though they both knew there was no way Steve was going to leave Jack alone, he nodded his head and assured him that he’d be fine. Jack slowed the car, not enough for it to be noticeable to Hesse if he were watching from the road, but enough for Steve to drop from the car on the opposite side to the field, and disappear into the high crops around the dirt road.

As he got to the crest of the hill, it wasn’t difficult for Jack to spot Danny’s Camaro sitting in a field, next to the fire Mike had lit to draw their attention. Getting closer, he could see Mike waiting with an expectant expression. He was holding something in his hand and Jack realised it was the detonator for the bomb.

“You got your wish,” he said as he got out of the Silverado and slammed the door closed behind him. “I’m here.”

A genuine grin appeared on Mike’s face and Jack was almost reminded of what had attracted him to the other man in the first place. Almost. Then he remembered everything Mike had done since then was filled with more hatred than he thought possible.

“You’re looking good,” Mike said, not making a move from where he was standing, which Jack decided was an excellent idea. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to stop himself from strangling the bastard if he were within reach, and he couldn’t risk Mike detonating the bomb while he was dying.

“Wish I could say the same for you,” Jack taunted. “I think you should lay off the cheeseburgers.”  
In his ear, he heard Steve snicker. 

Mike didn’t react; he remained silent, with his eyes glued to Jack. “I’m glad you got my message,” he eventually said softly.

Jack’s eyes narrowed. “Ianto waking up with a bomb around his neck? Yes, that was pretty clear.” He didn’t say anything about how Ianto was planning to survive the bomb blast, and then make Mike suffer. For the younger Time Agent, it had only been three years since they had last seen enough other. Ianto hadn’t been immortal then, and the chances that Mike didn’t know were pretty high. Jack was more than willing to use that in their favour.

Mike clicked his tongue and shook his head. “I’m not talking about Eye Candy,” he argued impatiently. “I was surprised when I discovered a Torchwood employee here on this rock, but…” He shrugged his shoulders. “I knew as soon as McGarrett got the case that he’d call you in for help.”

He paused for a moment, before adding, “I’ve gotta admit, I was surprised when I realised who he was, but then I remembered what was so unique about you, Jack. Does Eye Candy know you had a son with someone when he wasn’t looking?”

Well, Jack thought to himself, that explained both how Mike knew about Steve and how he had explained to himself how Steve looked the same age as Jack. He thought he was from a relationship before Ianto. Either that or he had time travelled, cheated on the other man, and then returned, leaving the son behind.

“What do you want, Mike?” Jack sighed, only half faking the boredom. He wanted to steer the conversation away from his son, and talking about himself always made Mike forget anything else.

As predicted, Mike’s brain immediately shifted gear and he focussed on why he had brought Jack to the field in the first place. “Just like I said last time, for you to see sense, Jack.”

Jack groaned and rolled his eyes. “We’re back to this again?” He whined. “You really need to focus on something else for a change. How long are you going to keep travelling through the universe with that thought in the back of your mind?”

Mike snarled and tightened his hold on the detonator, but didn’t move to press the trigger. “Don’t mock me, Jack,” he advised. “And don’t act like you don’t feel anything for me. We were together for five years, that’s not something you just forget.”

“Two weeks,” Jack corrected automatically, wishing that he had severed the connection with Steve. He hadn’t wanted his son to find out about his physical connection with Mike; especially not from anyone other than him. “And I haven’t forgotten.”

A grin appeared on Mike’s face, and Jack couldn’t help adding, “But I’m trying to.”

The grin vanished in the blink of an eye and was replaced with a dark glare that actually made Jack go cold. He had pushed him too far, this time. He just knew it.

“I really wish you hadn’t said that, Jack,” Mike whispered. “Now Eye Candy’s going to suffer, because you’re too stubborn to see what’s in front of you. If I can’t have you, neither can he.”

Mike lifted his hand, detonator still firmly held in his palm. Before he could press the button, Jack uttered a single command. 

“Now.”

~

Steve and Jack had been gone for half an hour. Kono and Chin had arrived not long after, but Ianto’s orders for them to leave had worked better than they had on Danny. With apologetic expressions, the cousins had made their way back to beyond the barrier HPD had set up.

Leaving Danny and Ianto sitting in silence, each of them trapped in their own thoughts. 

“Why did you call Jack ‘Will’ earlier?” Danny heard himself asked before he had fully realised the words were coming from his mouth.

Even Ianto looked a little surprised at the question, but he schooled his expression pretty quickly. “Will was his birth name,” he answered softly. 

“Ah,” Danny murmured. That made sense. If they lived for so long, it made sense that they would need to change their names pretty frequently to avoid detection.

A smile appeared on Ianto’s face and he continued, “He’s used the name Jack for centuries. His surname is the only thing he changes when he needs to.” At Danny’s confused expression, Ianto chuckled, “I take it, you didn’t mean to say that out loud? That’s why Steve and Mary are both called ‘McGarrett’. When we moved to Hawaii, we wanted a fresh start, so decided to change our names.”

“When we’re in public, I call him ‘Jack’, just like everyone else. It’s only when we’re alone, or with family that I call him ‘Will’.”

He didn’t explain further, and Danny didn’t need him to. The implication that Ianto thought of Danny as family was pretty obvious, and made it a little difficult for him to breath, if he were being honest.

“I…” Danny closed his mouth when he realised that, for once, he didn’t actually know what to say. Instead he settled for, “Thank you.”

Ianto smiled and they fell silent again. Both of them lost in their own thoughts once more, which seemed to be happening to Danny more and more lately. 

This time, the silence only lasted five minutes, until they heard the bomb click. At first, Danny thought he was going to die and his life started flashing before his eyes, before he realised that bombs generally only made that sound when they were being released. 

His theory was proved right when he looked up and saw bomb techs running toward them, carrying a metal case for the device. It was over. Steve and Jack had done what they needed.

Pushing himself into a kneeling position before the bomb techs reached them, Danny leant forward and, with careful hands, removed the device from around Ianto’s neck. 

The immortal waited until the bomb had been locked safely away, before he relaxed his posture and practically fell into Danny’s arms. Danny chuckled and placed his hands on Ianto’s biceps, steadying him as he tried to fully relax. He had been holding the same position for hours, that had to hurt; no matter who you were. 

“You ready to stand up?” Danny asked after a few minutes. Ianto nodded his head and Danny got to his feet first, before holding a hand out to help his partner’s father.

Surprisingly, Ianto was only wobbly on his feet for a few seconds, before he regained control of himself. “Can I borrow your phone?” he asked, glancing at Danny. “Hesse took mine.”

Danny had been going to hand him the device anyway, even without the explanation. He handed the phone over and watched Ianto dial Jack’s number from memory. 

“Where are you?” Ianto demanded as soon as the call was connected. He was silent for a beat, before Ianto instructed, “Stay there. We’re on our way.”

~

Steve sat on the hood of his truck and looked at his hands. He wasn’t bothered by the fact that he had killed someone; he had killed plenty of people before (none of which he could admit to, of course). The thing he couldn’t get out of his mind was the conversation he had overheard between Jack and Hesse – who he couldn’t think about as Mike no matter how hard he tried.

“Are you okay?” Jack whispered from where he was standing next to the SEAL. Steve knew his father had been staring at him since putting the phone down with Ianto, and he had been waiting to see how long it would take for the Captain to crack.

He nodded his head. “Does Tad know about you and Hesse?” he demanded, feeling the urge to protect Ianto from the knowledge that Jack had been with someone else. 

Jack let out a breath and ran his hand over the back of his neck. “Yeah,” he murmured. “Look, it’s not what you think…”

Steve laughed. A short, sharp sound that seemed to echo around the area somehow. “Then tell me what it is, Dad,” he instructed. “Because right now, I’m pretty pissed that you didn’t tell me the truth about you two from the start.”

A growl sounded from Jack’s throat as he glared at Steve. “Don’t start getting all high and mighty with me, Steve.” The younger man very nearly winced when Jack called him that – he always got called Ste unless he was in trouble – but at the last second, straightened his back and stood his ground. He deserved to know what was going on, damn it. “People keep things quiet for a reason; you of all people should understand.”

They fell silent, the only sound coming from the animals in the nearby field as they continued on unaware of Jack and Steve’s presence.

“But, for what it’s worth,” Jack continued eventually, none of his previous anger and irritation evident in his voice. “Mike and I, we were over a long time ago.”

Steve raised his eyebrow, but remained otherwise motionless. He wanted to know what Jack had to say, but he wasn’t going to pull the information from him.

“Back when I was with the Agency, things between your father and I were different to how they are now,” Jack began, picking his words carefully. Steve had the feeling he didn’t want to freak him out with the details; something he was incredibly grateful for. “We’ve told you how different the fifty-first century is to now. Being ‘exclusive’ was… well, it was considered retro and something only those on the outer Peninsulas practised. A few months after I met Ianto, I was sent on a mission with another agent, Mike Shelburne.”

Steve’s eyes flickered to the dead body lying near Danny’s car, but he didn’t interrupt.

“He was closer to Ianto’s age and had only just qualified as a Time Agent,” Jack continued. “He wasn’t an assassin like your tad. There’s no way he was skilled enough to get to that level. The mission only lasted two weeks by linear time, but…” He chuckled wryly. “We accidentally got stuck in a time loop, so those two weeks became five years before we could break the cycle. When you’re that close with someone for five years, it’s hard to stay professional and keep your mind on the job.”

The Captain fell silent and Steve couldn’t help feeling guilty about how he had treated Jack earlier. The other man was right; he knew how important it was to keep things secret. He should have understood.

“I take it Tad knows all this?” Steve whispered.

Jack chuckled and nodded his head. “There aren’t many things you can hide from Ianto Jones,” he reminded him. “It wouldn’t surprise me if he even knows exactly what goes on when you get sent away with the SEALS.”

He had a point there, Steve realised. Ianto’s security clearance was as high as it was possible to get. Centuries of rubbing elbows with all the right people meant that he could quite literally walk into any military institute in the world and be treated as though he were in charge.

They both looked up when they heard the unmistakable sound of a motorcycle, seconds before said bike appeared over the hill and began making their way towards them.

Jack sniggered and pulled his phone out, quickly snapping a picture of the bike and it’s driver. “Gwyn is going to love this,” he murmured, quickly typing a message and sending the photo to his grandson before anyone could stop him.

The bike came to a stop near them, and the two riders climbed off. “You’d better not have sent that to Gwyn,” Ianto threatened, glaring at his partner.

A wicked grin appeared on Jack’s face and he fluttered his eyelashes innocently at Ianto. “Oops,” he whispered, stepping up to the other man and pulling him into his arms. “Hi,” he said softly.

Ianto grinned in response and lifted his hands up to wrap his arms around Jack’s neck. “I almost get blown up and that’s the best you could come up with?”

Steve rolled his eyes, and forced himself to ignore them; which wasn’t difficult after all these years. He jumped down from the car as Danny got to him and grinned. “Your hair’s all messed up,” he mocked.

Danny glared at him and lifted a hand to smooth it down, completely missing the tuft that was sticking up at an odd angle. “That better?”

“Not quite,” Steve laughed. Without consciously meaning to do it, he gently ran his fingers through the strands of blond hair, smoothing it down once more. “There,” he whispered, looking into Danny’s eyes and not feeling nervous about his feelings for the first time in two days, “perfect.”

The shorter detective smiled back and was about to make a comment when a gunshot rang through the air. In the blink of an eye, both Steve and Danny reached for their own weapons in response to the sound, only for Danny to realise that his wasn’t there anymore. How he had even missed the weight of it in the first place was beyond him.

They looked over to where the sound had originated and Steve laughed when he saw Ianto standing over Mike’s body, with what was likely Danny’s gun in his hand and a murderous expression on his face.

Mike was now sporting two gunshot wounds to the forehead, as opposed to the one Steve had left him with. 

“Erm, Tad?” Steve said, holstering his own gun now that he knew there wasn’t a threat. “You remember he was already dead, right? Most people can’t die twice. Once is generally good enough.”

Ianto shrugged his shoulders, and held his hand out, handing the weapon back to its rightful owner. “I don’t care. It makes me feel better,” he muttered. 

He glanced back down at Mike, before snarling and landing a heavy kick in his side for good measure.

~

Later that day, after making sure HPD knew exactly what had gone on (with a few details made up about who Jack and Ianto really were), Five-0 had handed the scene over to them and taken themselves off the investigation. Which meant that, once they had given their statements to Duke, they were free to go home.

Ianto had announced that he and Jack were going to book themselves into one of the hotels along the beach, and asked if he could borrow the Silverado. Steve didn’t want to think about why they were going away together, but he couldn’t help but smile at the happy expression on Jack’s face as they got into the truck. Clearly their hiatus was over – at least for now.

Even though they hadn’t spoken about it, Steve and Danny had both climbed into the Camaro and made their way back to the McGarrett house, while Steve tried to focus on driving and not how much he wanted to kiss Danny – and how terrified he was at the thought alone.

They were barely through the front door, when something inside Steve snapped. He was tired of being scared to admit what he really wanted. There was nothing wrong with it – his parents were prime examples – and he was going to take what he deserved after fighting it for so long. Even if he hadn’t known he was doing it.

Danny let out a startled yelp when his back hit the door, but before he could yell at Steve for manhandling him, the SEAL silenced him with a kiss. 

It didn’t feel so different to kissing a woman, a little voice pointed out in the back of Steve’s mind. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that he could feel the hairs of Danny’s chest when he slipped his fingers under his shirt, Steve might have forgotten he was kissing a man.

At least, until their hips touched and he felt an erection pressing against his own.

He started in surprise, coming back to his senses with a bang. He took a step back – he did not leap, he tried to tell himself, but wasn’t convincing anyone.

Danny looked at him with heavy eyes. “What, you’re getting cold feet now, babe?” His voice sounded… Steve had to swallow thickly to stop himself from doing something embarrassing. He had never heard anyone sound so rough; his accent heightened with lust so the normally barely-there Jersey accent was prominent. It was beautiful.

Steve licked his lips and shook his head. “I…” He felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment, but knew he had to tell Danny otherwise nothing could come from the night. “I…” He couldn’t say it. No matter how hard he tried, the words did not want to come out.

Thankfully, like most times, Danny seemed to know exactly what he was trying to say. The shorter man smiled and reached out, taking Steve’s hand in his own before he could react. “I figured as much, judging by your reaction the other day.” He smirked and brought the hand he was holding up to his mouth. “Lucky for us both,” he continued, pressing a soft kiss against Steve’s skin, “I have. If you trust me.”

Steve scoffed. “Of course I trust you,” he retorted automatically. “I’ve trusted you since the day we met. Well, after we’d put our guns away, anyway”

A grin spread across Danny’s face. “I think that’s the most romantic thing anyone’s ever said to me,” he whispered.

Slowly he took a step forward, closing the gap between them. “You’re going to have to come down to me you know, McGiant,” he grumbled, curling his fingers around Steve’s t-shirt and tugging him gently so they were closer to the same height.

This time when their lips met, it was softer and Steve couldn’t help groaning into the other man’s mouth. Danny, clearly taking this as a sign of encouragement, buried his fingers in Steve’s hair and tugged gently, tilting his head back to give him better access to the SEAL’s neck. That was when Steve decided that Danny had been right all along; he did have ways of torture that the Navy had never heard of. The thing he was currently doing with his mouth? It would definitely be Steve’s undoing.

“What do you say we take this somewhere more comfortable?” Danny whispered, running his tongue up the side of Steve’s neck.

Steve shuddered with pleasure and he could feel Danny’s grin against his skin. Silently, he placed his hand in the other man’s and pulled them away from the door. Danny was right, the bedroom would be more comfortable than against the door; especially for his first time with a man.

At the door to the bedroom, his thoughts caught up with him and Steve came to an abrupt stop when he realised exactly what he was about to do and with who.

Beside him, Danny sighed and moved so he was in front of the SEAL. “Babe,” he whispered, bringing his hands up and cupping Steve’s tanned face in his palms. When the other man’s gaze focused on him again, he smiled softly, “We don’t have to do anything you’re not ready for.”

Ordinarily, Steve would have detested the implication that there was anything he couldn’t do. But right then, he wasn’t ashamed to admit that he was terrified about what lay ahead. Taking a deep, almost shuddering breath, Steve shook his head, “I am ready,” he murmured, covering one of Danny’s hands with his own.

A brilliant grin appeared on Danny’s face and the other man kissed Steve passionately, clearly trying to steal every breath in his lungs. Not that Steve was complaining. He could happily die that way, he was sure of it. He groaned when he felt Danny’s hand run underneath his t-shirt, his fingers dancing over the muscles of his abdomen.

“Danny,” he groaned when those fingers reached his nipple and squeezed. His chest had always been supersensitive, and to know that it was Danny turning him on like this… It was almost too much.

The detective pulled away, his lips swollen from their kisses. Before Steve could capture his mouth again, Danny pulled Steve’s t-shirt up and off. “Beautiful,” the Jersey native whispered, leaning back in and pressing a kiss to Steve’s sternum in an action that made goose bumps appear on Steve’s arms.

As he kissed Steve’s chest, Danny’s fingers made quick and easy work of the SEAL’s belt and fly. It happened so quick that Steve only realised what he was doing when he heard the sound of the zipper being opened and he started in surprise.

Danny, clearly sensing the change in his partner paused and looked up into Steve’s eyes. “Remember what I said, babe?” he asked, his voice still quite but completely serious. “Nothing you’re not ready for.”

Not trusting himself to actually speak, Steve placed his hands over Danny’s and together they pushed down his cargo pants and underwear in one movement. It took a few attempts to choreograph the removal of his boots, but in a few seconds, Steve was standing naked before Danny, with a fully erect cock standing proudly to attention.

Throwing the pants to the side, Danny took a step back and admired the view. “Even better than I imagined,” he murmured, reaching out and running the back of his fingers lightly along the underside of Steve’s cock.

Steve wanted to argue – because, really, he was nowhere near perfect – but his blood was rushing south and it was hard to think about anything other than Danny and what his hand was doing.

It was only when the back of his knees hit the bed when he realised that Danny had been backing him up, and he let out a yelp of surprise, making Danny grin. “Lie down,” Danny whispered, tracing Steve’s jaw with his tongue, making the other man shudder.

Obligingly, Steve fell back onto the mattress, shifting back until his head was resting on the pillows. He expected Danny to follow him, but when he didn’t, Steve raised an eyebrow and was about to ask what was wrong, when Danny ducked and pressed a soft kiss to the head of his cock.

It wasn’t the first blow job Steve had experienced – that honour was reserved for his first girlfriend back in High School – but it might as well have been. One touch and Steve was pretty sure he would come from that alone.

Danny grinned and ran his fingers up the inside of Steve’s thighs as his mouth lowered on the other man’s cock.

“Fuck, Danny,” Steve whispered, reaching down and running his hand through the other man’s hair. He was dying to tighten his hold and push his cock further into the detective’s mouth, but didn’t dare. The last thing he wanted was for Danny to stop.

He gasped when Danny’s tongue ran up his shaft, even as he continued lowering his head. Steve was pretty big, he knew that, and the women he’d received blow jobs from hadn’t been able to take everything he had. That didn’t seem to be stopping Danny though, Steve thought distractedly when Danny took a deep breath and swallowed the last few inches.

Setting a rhythm wasn’t difficult and soon Danny was sucking Steve’s cock with the same rigour he reserved for everything else, while the taller man moaned and tried to not choke his partner.

Too soon for his liking, Steve could feel his orgasm beginning to grow and knew it wouldn’t be long before he spilled himself into Danny’s mouth. But he couldn’t find the words to warn the other man.

Luckily for him, Danny seemed to sense the change in Steve. Instead of pulling away, though, he sucked harder and successfully managed to pull Steve’s orgasm from him with a shout.

When he was sure that every drop Steve had to offer had been successfully milked from the SEAL, Danny sat up and leant back on his heels, looking down at Steve with an amused expression on his face.

“Still feeling unsure?” he asked, a smirk curling at the corner of his lip when Steve glared at him.

Steve shook his head sleepily and reached out for him. “Not even a little bit,” he whispered, running his fingers over the bulge in the front of Danny’s trousers. “Let me,” he whispered, unfastening the zip and setting about repaying Danny in kind.

~

Epilogue

Danny woke to an empty bed and cold sheets. He wasn’t surprised. It had been almost a month since Jack and Ianto had returned to the mainland and, in the time he and Steve had been doing… whatever it is they were doing, he had quickly become accustomed to waking up to find Steve had gone swimming or running when only lunatics and kids drunk from the night before were out.

Running his hand over his face with a groan, he blindly grabbed his cell from the bedside table. It was 8am. That was odd. Steve had normally finished with his exercise and was making breakfast by then. Breakfast Danny currently couldn’t smell.

Grumbling to himself about how Steve better be in danger, he pulled on the closest thing he could reach – his boxers and a baggy Navy T-shirt of his lover’s – and stumbled from the room.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he realised he couldn’t smell breakfast, but he could smell coffee. Since he had discovered that Steve didn’t own a coffee maker and taken it upon himself to buy the SEAL a machine, getting up at such a godforsaken hour was a lot easier. 

Pouring himself a cup, he headed out onto the lanai, where Steve was sitting in his board shorts at the circular table. In front of him was the most paperwork Danny had ever seen. They all appeared to have come from the red tool box sitting at the SEAL’s feet.

“I think I’m still asleep,” Danny muttered, sliding into the seat beside Steve. “There’s no way you’re doing paperwork this early in the morning.”

Steve snorted with laughter and shook his head. “It’s not paperwork,” he retorted, leaning over and pressing a kiss against Danny’s cheek. “This is all family stuff.”

Danny took a sip of his coffee and glanced at the documents on the table. There was a bunch of old photos and a rolled up scroll. He reached out and plucked a blue pill bottle from amongst the papers. It wasn’t labelled, but Danny knew they weren’t what Steve had passed them off as when he had originally asked weeks ago.

“These are not vitamins,” he observed, shaking the bottle in Steve’s direction.

Steve’s fingers stilled where they had been drumming against the table. He studied Danny for a long minute, before he slowly reached out and took the bottle from his partner. “If I tell you, you’re going to freak,” he whispered, looking down at the bottle with an expression Danny couldn’t read.

“Probably,” Danny agreed and Steve’s head snapped up to glare at him. “But why don’t you tell me anyway, and let me decide how to react.”

Steve was silent for so long Danny thought he’d decided to not tell him anyway. When he finally did speak, Danny had to strain himself to hear the words. “They’re birth control pills.”

“Excuse me?”

Steve groaned and ran a hand over his face. “I said you were going to freak.”

Danny reached out and placed his hand over Steve’s. “Does it sound like I’m freaking out? I said ‘Excuse me’. But you’re going to have to explain yourself, Babe. Last I checked you’re not going to get me pregnant.”

A slightly hysterical laugh escaped Steve’s mouth and he shook his head. “Trust me, that’s not the issue, Danno.”

The reality of what Steve was trying to tell him – without actually saying the words – hit Danny like a punch to the gut. “Seriously?” he spluttered.

Steve raised an eyebrow. “Did you not wonder how I came from two men?” he asked. There was a note of his usual humour in his voice, but it wasn’t difficult to detect the undercurrent of nervousness.

Danny shrugged his shoulders and took a drink of his coffee. “It’s the twenty-fourth century, Steven. At first I thought Jack was the biological parent, but then I met Ianto and changed my mind; everything about you started making sense then. I just presumed they’d used a surrogate or something.”

Steve bit his lip, before rummaging through the paperwork in front of him. “You know how dad and tad are from the fifty-first century.” The words were a statement, but Danny still nodded his head in confirmation. “Well, by then, humans will have mixed with other races and evolved. It won’t be a male-female relationship kinda world, so they had to adjust in order to survive.”

“Evolution at its finest,” Danny murmured.

Steve handed him the photo he had found. “Every male in my family has the ability to carry children. With the genetics coming from both sides, there’s no way we couldn’t. This was taken in 2008.”

Danny looked down and drew in a breath when he saw that the subject of the photo was an extremely heavily pregnant Ianto. He looked up at Steve and saw that the guarded expression was back on his lover’s face. “Don’t look like that, Babe. I’ve never seen a pregnant man before, give me a few seconds for it to sink in.” He looked back at the picture. “Who is he pregnant with?”

“My oldest brother Dominic,” Steve answered.

Blue eyes flickered to the photo before he looked back up at Steve. “Who…” He coughed to clear his throat, before trying again. “Who…” He couldn’t say it. It was too weird.

Steve chuckled, knowing what was going on in Danny’s head. “Who carried me?” he asked. Danny nodded. “Dad. He had both me and Mary.” He leant forward and unrolled the scroll, revealing what Danny was certain was the most complicated family tree in the history of the world. “Welcome to the Harkness-Jones family.”

Danny shuffled closer, looking at all the names, starting from the top. “Dominic, Rory, Landon, Nathan, Alice, Mark,” he read. “Your parents like having boys, don’t they?” he asked, with a smirk.

Steve rolled his eyes, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I don’t think they have a choice in it, but yeah, it looks that way, doesn’t it?”

Danny didn’t answer as he absently sipped his coffee, his blue eyes skimming the rest of the text. It wasn’t a complete tree, he noticed. While it listed Jack, Ianto and the rest of Steve’s brothers and sisters, it only listed those sibling’s children. Danny imagined it would be too complicated to go into more detail.

At the top of the page he saw the eldest children, Dominic and Rory, and their children, Kat, Cali, and… Gwyn. 

Danny frowned and blinked hard, before staring at the name, but it still said Gwyn Iaon Ryman. “Well, at least it makes sense how your tad knows Gwyn,” he mumbled, trying to ignore the way his head was spinning at the thoughts that the young, wisecracking friend of his partner was actually almost two-hundred years old. And Steve’s nephew.

Steve chuckled and nodded his head, but otherwise didn’t speak as he let Danny read the rest of the family tree. 

The blond detective was silent as he carried on reading, not stopping until he reached Steve and Mary’s names at the bottom. To his surprise, the document didn’t stop there, though. 

Clearly printed beside Steve’s name, with a dark red line joining them were his and Grace’s names.

“Did you do this?” Danny whispered, hovering his fingers over the names as though they would disappear if he touched them. It wasn’t Steve’s writing, but he couldn’t imagine Jack or Ianto adding them.

Steve followed his gaze and flushed. “Not technically. It’s alien technology; it updates itself. Tad’s the only one who cares enough to keep an eye on whether it’s updated. He said it changed about two years ago.” He laughed and rolled his eyes. “No wonder he wasn’t surprised when he interrupted us that day.”

Danny frowned. “That was just after I moved to Hawaii,” he pointed out.

Steve smirked and nodded. “Apparently, my subconscious decided you and Gracie were ohana from the start.”

A lump formed in Danny’s throat and he coughed lightly, trying to clear it. He had long since decided that outside of his parents and sisters, Grace was the only family he needed. To hear Steve say he had been family from the start… Not resisting the urge, he leant over and pressed a gentle kiss against Steve’s lips. “I love you, Scary SEAL; crazy family and all.”

Steve laughed and shook his head. “Hate to tell you this, but they’re your family now too. But, for what it’s worth, I love you too, Danno.”

The End


End file.
